Rookie Spencer Schwellenbach retired the last 12 men he faced Friday night and worked seven strong innings as the visiting Atlanta Braves earned a 6-1 win over the San Diego Padres. Schwellenbach (3-4) gave up just three hits and a run, walking one and striking out three, in the longest of his eight major league starts. Two relievers finished up as the Braves bounced back from a two-game skid.
Marcell Ozuna led the Atlanta offense, jacking a pair of solo homers to give him 26 long balls for the season. Orlando Arcia also homered as the Braves collected nine hits off three San Diego pitchers. Matt Waldron (5-8) lasted seven innings for the Padres, allowing six hits and four runs with a walk and a strikeout. It was just the second time in his last nine outings that he didn’t log a quality start. San Diego absorbed its fifth loss in a row.
Waldron took the mound for the fifth inning with a 1-0 lead, thanks to back-to-back doubles by Jake Cronenworth and Manny Machado that started the fourth. Four pitches later, the game was tied, as Ozuna belted a towering solo homer to left-center. Atlanta made it 2-1 moments later when Adam Duvall doubled, reached third on Eddie Rosario’s sacrifice bunt and scored on Travis d’Arnaud’s single to right. Arcia followed with a two-run shot, his seventh homer of the year, off the facing of the second deck in left-center. There was no response from San Diego as Schwellenbach didn’t allow another baserunner after Machado’s RBI double. The Padres managed only two baserunners over the last five innings and have scored five runs throughout their past four games.
The Braves tacked on a run in the eighth when Austin Riley lofted a sacrifice fly to right that scored Arcia, who led off the inning with a single and reached third via Ozzie Albies’ double. Ozuna capped the scoring in the ninth with his second homer of the night, a line shot off Enyel De Los Santos to right-center. –Field Level Media
