Michael Harris II had four hits and Dominic Smith and Drake Baldwin each hit a two-run home run, leading the Atlanta Braves to an 8-3 win over the Miami Marlins on Saturday afternoon in Miami.
Atlanta deployed a bullpen game against the Marlins in the second-to-last game of the regular season, trying to set up its rotation for the National League wild-card series the Braves will host next week.
Atlanta has decisions to make with its rotation due to multiple injuries. The Braves used an opener out of the bullpen for the second straight game on Saturday.
Brent Suter started for Atlanta and pitched three innings, allowing only one hit with three strikeouts. Victor Mederos (6-1) pitched two scoreless innings to earn the win.
Otto Lopez had two hits to raise his batting average to .305 and increase his major league-leading hit total to 191. He ended his day third in the NL batting race.
Jack Ralston (0-3) allowed three runs on three hits in 1 1/3 innings as the opener for the Marlins.
Harris led off the game with a double and scored on Matt Olson’s sacrifice fly in the top of the first. Smith’s home run in the second made it 3-0, and Ralston was replaced by reliever Victor Vodnik.
The Braves tacked on another run in the inning, and Harris doubled in Ha-Seong Kim in the top of the fourth to make it 5-0. Olson followed with an RBI infield single to make it 6-0.
Sanoja homered and Griffin Conine added an RBI single in the bottom of the fourth to cut Miami’s deficit to 6-2. Heriberto Hernandez tripled in Lopez in the seventh to make it 6-3, but the Marlins could get no closer.
Baldwin capped the scoring with his 25th homer, a two-run shot in the ninth after Harris’ fourth hit.
–Field Level Media
