MIAMI — Dominic Smith had some sort of evening at loanDepot Park on Wednesday.
In the final three innings of a 9-1 Braves win, Smith hit a three-run homer that broke open a four-run game and then scored on a triple and an error, much to the delight of the Braves fans in attendance, and more so to his teammates in the dugout.
“I ran out of gas. I’m sure they’re gonna have some fun with it tomorrow at the hitters meeting,” Smith said of his pseudo inside-the-park home run. “When I got in the dugout everybody was laughing about it. I looked at my phone, family members are already texting me memes of me laid out, me running. It’s fun. When you’re winning, funny things like that, it’s OK.”
In an 8-1 game in the eighth, Smith came to the plate with one out to face Marlins reliever Tyler Phillips. He drove Phillips’ sixth pitch deep to the gap in right center.
Marlins center fielder Esteury Ruiz was there to make the play, but the ball popped out of his glove when he collided with right fielder Owen Caissie. Smith raced for third as the ball rolled away in the outfield, and then scampered home on Caissie’s throw to the infield, which went to no one in particular.
“Yeah. I haven’t done that in a long time,” Smith said of rounding the bases. “So, when I saw (Braves third base coach) Tommy (Watkins) waving me around third base, I was pretty shocked.”
Smith was in the heart of the action in the sixth inning, too, when he hit a three-run shot off Marlins starter Janson Junk. Junk had retired 11 straight hitters until giving up four straight singles that inning.
With two on and nobody out, Smith hit the 12th pitch of his at-bat 389 feet to right center to put the Braves ahead 8-1. Smith fouled off seven pitches during the at-bat before hitting his fifth home run of the season and his first since April 17.
“Junk, he was tough on us early on in the game, making really tough pitches. (Matt Olson) worked a good count. Ozzie (Albies) got on base there as well. Made it really easy on myself,” Smith said. “I know my first at-bat I jumped on the heater early, kind of got myself out. And then second at-bat, kind of missed the heater. So, for me, I was really trying to simplify it, trying to get a good pitch over the heart of the zone with a guy on third base with less than two outs.
“I know that I didn’t want to do much, just hit the ball in the air somewhere and drive in a run. I was really trying to simplify it, and he made some good pitches. He threw me some good heaters, I couldn’t catch up to some good cutters and got my two-strike approach and just battled him out and was able to get some of the air in the wind.”
All those runs were plenty for Braves starter Chris Sale to work with.
After Sale (7-3) had to throw 21 pitches in the first inning, he settled into a dominant groove. The Marlins had just two hits — one an infield single — after the first inning, and Sale ended his outing by retiring nine straight batters.
“It seemed like I was getting to two strikes pretty well, and then when I got to two strikes, I just tried to overdo it a little bit and things just kind of started leaking arm side,” Sale said. “Came in after that inning and kind of realized what I was doing. Talked to ‘Hef’ (Braves pitching coach Jeremy Hefner), he was obviously like, ‘Hey, let’s get back to it.’ And then after that, it was a lot better.”
The veteran Sale pitched seven innings and allowed just one run and four hits. He struck out eight, and 67 of his 96 pitches were strikes.
Sale came into Wednesday’s outing without recording a win against three current MLB franchises: St. Louis, Atlanta and Miami. Miami has been crossed off the list.
“Yeah, they’re aggressive. Seems like they have really good bat-and-ball skills, and they kind of pick their spots,” Sale said of the Marlins. “It seemed like any time I was trying to kind of get a strike, they were ready for it. Had to kind of readjust after the first inning, focus on making quality pitches and just not leaving stuff over the middle of the plate.”
The Marlins (22-28) had jumped on Sale in the first Wednesday with back-to-back singles to put runners at the corners. Heriberto Hernandez hit a line drive 103 mph off the bat for a sacrifice line drive to center to score Xavier Edwards from third, giving the Marlins an early lead.
That lead didn’t last long.
Albies and Mauricio Dubón singled in the second to set the table for Austin Riley, who took a first-pitch sweeper from Junk and belted it 415 feet to dead center for his eighth home run of the season and fifth long ball this month.
“I put the guys in a hole right out of the gate in the first inning, so for ‘Riles’ to come up and put up three right there, big swing, you kind of take an exhale and say, ‘OK, let’s get back to the game plan, we got a two-run cushion,’” Sale said. “Allows you to go out there and just kind of feel comfortable throwing strikes again.”
Junk was cruising along after the Riley home run until Ronald Acuña Jr. led off the sixth with a first-pitch single up the middle. Michael Harris II, Olson and Albies all followed with singles of their own to give the Braves a 5-1 lead and set up Smith’s pivotal at-bat.
“That’s one of the most professional at-bats you’re going to see,” Sale said. “I don’t know how many pitches it was, it seemed like it was 20. Fouling off, fouling off, battling, battling, battling, and then gets a pitch he can handle and puts it in the seats and that kind of opens up the game. Riley kind of set the tone, and then that one kind of blows it open. That was a huge moment in the game.”
Víctor Mederos made his Braves debut out of the bullpen and pitched two scoreless innings.
After losing Monday’s game 12-0, the Braves (34-16) will go for another series win Thursday night. They have outscored the Fish 17-5 the past two days.
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