 allowed two runs, seven hits and struck out a career-high eight in six solid innings.''We were really eager and excited to come home and play our first home game,'' Lopez said. ''It was fun to see the guys behind me making plays, and the aggressiveness on the bases. It was a really fun game all around. We hope to keep our foot on the gas.'' Magneuris Sierra's bunt scored Eddy Alvarez from third in the fourth to give Miami a 3-2 lead. Berti added another run in the inning, stealing home on the front end of a double steal.Miami stole three additional bases, including two from Jonathan Villar. Sierra also stretched a single into a double in the sixth.''Speed is a difficult thing to deal with,'' Mattingly said. ''When you have speed it just puts a little bit of pressure everywhere. You know back to the same old thing, you can't steal first. You have to have guys on base who can hit. We are building a club with more and more speed.'' Miami capitalized on Atlanta starter Kyle Wright's wildness in the third for a 2-1 lead. Wright surrendered Villar's RBI double and walked the next three batters.''They're foot loose and fancy free right now,'' Atlanta manager Brian Snitker said of the Marlins. ''They're hitting the ball, taking the next base. You've got to make pitches. You can't walk them.'' Adam Duvall's run-scoring double tied it in the fourth before Wright (0-3) was chased after his sixth walk that started the bottom of the inning.''It's kind of been the story of the season so far, I've been coming out of the gates hot, pitching well those first couple of innings then having some road blocks in the middle,'' said Wright, who threw 19 pitches in the first two innings before finishing with 65 in his three-plus innings outing. ''I lost command. I beat myself today.'' Travis d'Arnaud hit a solo homer in the Atlanta first. The Braves will be without All-Star center fielder Ronald Acuna Jr. in the series while he recovers from a sore left wrist.JOYCE'S WEB GEMSMiami's Matt Joyce ran from left-center and robbed Johan Camargo off an extra-base hit with his diving grab near the foul line in the sixth. Joyce also made a diving catch off Ender Inciarte's sinking liner in the seventh.''I felt like I ran forever,'' Joyce said of his first catch. ''When I looked up to see where the ball was, I was a lot closer than I thought. I said, `let's give it a shot.' You do what you can to help the team win.'' MISSING MARLINSSome of the Marlins sidelined by the team's coronavirus outbreak appear to be closer to rejoining the team, manager Don Mattingly said before the game.''We do feel like in the next few days we're going to have guys that are cleared to start working out,'' he said.FOLLOWING PROTOCOLSThe Braves became the first team to visit Miami, where following the strict protocols required of road clubs during the pandemic will be tested. Miami continues to deal with a spike in coronavirus cases the past two months.''Everybody poked their head out of their room and maybe took a little stroll but everybody kind of hung close to the place,'' Snitker said of his team's first night at a local hotel Thursday.TRAINER'S ROOMBraves: 2B Ozzie Albies (right wrist contusion) swung off a tee Friday. Snitker said Albies could return next week.Marlins: RHP Michael Morin was placed on the 10-day IL, retroactive to Thursday, with a right elbow injury and recalled LHP Josh D. Smith from the alternate training site.UP NEXTBraves: LHP Max Fried (3-0, 1.59) will start the middle game of the series Saturday. Fried is 0-1 in four career starts against Miami.Marlins: LHP Daniel Castano (0-1, 8.31) will make his second major league start Saturday. Castano was promoted from the club's Alternate Training Site Aug. 4 and allowed five runs in 4 1/3 innings against the New York Mets on Sunday.---More MLB: https://apnews.com/MLB and https://twitter.com/-Sports---More MLB: https://apnews.com/MLB and https://twitter.com/-Sports)
Braves, Marlins meet in surprise first-place battleIt's early, but it's also late, and that sums up this weekend's odd battle for first place in the National League East between the visiting Atlanta Braves and the surprising Miami Marlins.Friday's game to kick this series off is also this season's home opener for the Marlins. And if you think having an MLB home opener on August 14 is weird, then welcome to 2020.The Braves, regarded as one of the most talented organizations in baseball, are not immune to oddities. They are just 11-9 so far and on a three-game losing streak.Ordinarily, in a 162-game MLB schedule, there would be plenty of time to get things right for a Braves team that won the division last year with a 97-65 record. But, in a shortened, pandemic-necessitated 60-game schedule, there's no time for a slump.Further, the Braves have already lost their best pitcher, 2019 All-Star Mike Soroka, who is out for the season due to a torn Achilles tendon, and superstar left fielder Ronald Acuna Jr. will miss the Marlins series due to a sore left wrist."It was (sore) enough that he couldn't play," Braves manager Brian Snitker said on Tuesday.The injury has not gotten any better since, although the Braves do not believe Acuna will join Atlanta second baseman Ozzie Albies (sore right wrist) on the injured list.Acuna and Albies combined last year for 229 runs, 65 doubles, 65 homers and 187 RBIs.Without them, the Braves still have star first baseman Freddie Freeman, who had 38 homers and 121 RBIs last year and is off to a good start since recovering from a bout of COVID-19.Other hot Braves hitters include outfielders Marcell Ozuna and Nick Markakis and shortstop Dansby Swanson.On the mound, the Braves will start Kyle Wright (0-2, 6.75 ERA).Wright has faced the Marlins just once in his career, allowing two runs in six innings of a no-decision last year. Miami won that game against Atlanta's bullpen, 4-2.So far, Wright -- who was the fifth overall draft pick in 2017 -- has failed to live up to his potential. The former Vanderbilt star is 0-5 with a 7.41 ERA in 14 career appearances, including seven starts.Wright's counterpart on Friday will be fellow 24-year-old right-hander Pablo Lopez (1-1, 1.80 ERA).Lopez, a Venezuela native, made his major league debut in 2018 and is 8-13 with a 4.60 ERA in 33 appearances, all starts. Against the Braves, he has yet to win in five starts (0-3), but he has a 3.54 ERA that suggests he's pitched in tough luck.His best outing this year was on Aug. 4, when he pitched five scoreless innings against the Baltimore Orioles.As a team, the Marlins have had a crazy season that was interrupted in the middle by 18 players testing positive for COVID-19, forcing the postponement of eight games.Friday is the start of a seven-game Marlins homestand, and they arrived in Miami on a high note. That's because on Wednesday, the Marlins snapped a three-game losing streak in an oh-so-2020 way, blowing an eight-run lead only to win it 14-11 in 10 innings.Before the Marlins did it on Friday, no MLB team had ever allowed at least seven homers and at least 18 hits and still won the game."It seemed like a perfect way to end the road trip," Marlins manager Don Mattingly said. "It was out of the ordinary."We had a fire alarm at midnight last night. It (the oddities) just goes on and on, right?"--Field Level Media
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