Austin Riley and Drake Baldwin each hit two home runs to lead the Atlanta Braves to an 8-5 win over the visiting Texas Rangers on Sunday in the rubber game of their three-game series.
Riley was 3-for-4, including his 11th and 12th home runs, with four RBIs and scored two runs. Baldwin went a career-best 5-for-5, including his 17th and 18th homers, with two RBIs and a stolen base.
Riley’s first home run came in the second inning and traveled 416 feet, high into the second deck in left field. Riley connected again in the fourth inning with a low liner that cleared the wall in center field, 413 feet away. He also delivered a two-run bases-loaded single in the seventh.
Baldwin had solo homers in the third and eighth innings. He finished the series 10-for-14 with three homers, eight RBIs and five runs scored.
The Braves have scored five-plus runs in nine consecutive home games. Atlanta had 14 hits, including two from Matt Olson, Michael Harris II and Brewer Hicklen.
Atlanta starter and winner Grant Holmes (6-4) threw five innings and allowed three runs on seven hits and two walks, striking out two.
Texas starter Nathan Eovaldi (9-8) pitched four innings and allowed four runs on six hits – three of them home runs – with two walks and two strikeouts.
The Braves scored a run in each of the first four innings and led 4-0 when the Rangers scored three times in the fifth. Texas scored on Wyatt Langford’s RBI double, Josh Jung’s sacrifice fly and Jake Burger’s two-out RBI single.
Atlanta added three insurance runs in the seventh thanks to some shaky infield Texas infield defense that set up Riley’s two-run single and allowed Hicklen to add an RBI double.
Texas added a run in the eighth on Kyle Higashioka’s run-scoring double and Wyatt Langford hit a solo homer, his 10th, in the ninth inning. Langford has gone deep in four of his last 10 games.
