The NL East-leading Braves avoided a series sweep with a comeback win against the Diamondbacks.
Thursday’s afternoon matchup was a pitchers’ duel between NL Cy Young contenders Zac Gallen of the Arizona Diamondbacks and Spencer Strider of the Atlanta Braves.
Canzone hits first career dinger (photo Arizona Sports and Getty Images)
Gallen was perfect through six before Orlando Arcia spoiled it with a solo homer. Strider also got a hot start by adding to his MLB strikeout lead. A hiccup in the fourth (a triple) didn’t lead to a run, and his scoreless string held up until the seventh when the Diamondbacks struck for four runs to take a 4-1 lead. Dominic Canzone hit his first major league homer–a three-run shot that just dropped over the wall after Strider put on two runners courtesy of a walk and a hit batsman. The next batter, Emmanuel Rivera, followed with another homer.
But the Braves responded. Matt Olson’s two-run homer in the bottom of the inning put the Braves back in it by narrowing the contest to a one-run game, 4-3. Arizona answered quickly in the top of the seventh when Corbin Carroll hit a solo shot, extending the lead to 5-3. But Atlanta responded once again when Austin Riley crushed a go-ahead homer in the bottom of the eighth–his third straight game with a homer, and going 6-for-13 with four home runs in the series. Matt Olson followed with another homer (a solo shot), and Atlanta pulled off the comeback to win 7-5 and avoid a series sweep.
Strider struck out 13 in six-plus innings, his 14th game with double-digit strikeouts through 40 career starts. Gallen went seven innings, gave up five hits, didn’t serve up a single walk, and struck out five.
With the win, Atlanta’s lead now stands at 10.5 games in the NL East, while Arizona is two games behind the LA Dodgers in the NL West.
