SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Travis d’Arnaud homered early and hit an RBI single in the 10th inning that sent the Atlanta Braves past the San Francisco Giants 4-3 on Tuesday night.
Ramón Laureano also went deep and Austin Riley singled twice to lead Atlanta to its second consecutive win over San Francisco in extra innings. The Braves beat the Giants 1-0 in 10 innings on d’Arnaud’s sacrifice fly in the series opener Monday.
“If we’re going to make a push and do anything, that’s kind of the way it starts happening,” Braves manager Brian Snitker said. “We did a lot of really good things tonight. Good team win.”
Pinch-runner Luke Williams began the 10th as the automatic runner at second base. With one out, d’Arnaud hit a grounder toward the right side of the infield. The ball deflected off the glove of diving second baseman Brett Wisely into right field.
“I was just trying to stay short and hit a groundball,” d’Arnaud said. “Luckily it found a hole and that was it.”
In the bottom of the 10th, the Giants attempted to bunt their automatic runner to third but Wisely was called for batter’s interference. LaMonte Wade Jr. and Heliot Ramos flied out to end it.
Dylan Lee (4-2) retired three batters for the win and Raisel Iglesias pitched the 10th for his 25th save.
The Braves (63-56) increased their lead to two games over the New York Mets for the final National League wild card. The Giants (61-61) are 3 1/2 back.
Tyler Fitzgerald homered for San Francisco, which lost its third consecutive game after winning eight of 10.
“It’s three games in a row we’ve lost by a run,” manager Bob Melvin said. “At home we’ve been pretty good about winning the close games, so it’s frustrating.”
Trailing 3-2 going into the eighth, the Giants rallied.
Wade doubled off Pierce Johnson leading off before Ramos hit a slow grounder toward third. Riley bobbled the ball and then picked it up, but it slipped out of his hand while he was trying to make a throw. Wade later scored the tying run on a wild pitch.
Laureano hit a solo homer in the second. San Francisco starter Kyle Harrison also gave up a solo drive to d’Arnaud in the third, his 13th of the season.
Braves veteran Charlie Morton bounced back from his worst start of the season and had eight strikeouts in six innings to reach 2,000 strikeouts for his career. Morton, who allowed eight runs and a career-high four homers over 2 2/3 innings in his previous outing Aug. 8 against Milwaukee, gave up six hits and two runs to San Francisco.
The 40-year-old pitcher relished his milestone after being hindered by hip and elbow operations earlier in his career.
“I’m really grateful to experience a lot of what I have, considering the fact that I wasn’t even sure I was going to be given the ball to start anymore after 2015,” Morton said. “Since (2016) I’ve been kind of a different pitcher and it’s allowed me to pitch until I was 40 and to experience the moments that I have.”
Harrison had six strikeouts and allowed three runs in five innings.
TRAINER’S ROOM
Braves: RHP Reynaldo López (forearm) began a rehab assignment with Triple-A Gwinnett. ... RHP Jimmy Herget was called up from Gwinnett. LHP Zach Logue was optioned to the minors.
Giants: INF Thairo Estrada (left wrist sprain) went 1 for 3 with an RBI in a rehab game with Triple-A Sacramento but remains a few weeks from being activated, according to Melvin.
UP NEXT
Giants LHP Robbie Ray (2-1, 3.98 ERA) faces Atlanta RHP Grant Holmes (0-0, 3.79) in the series finale Wednesday. Holmes has allowed eight runs over his past two outings, matching the eight runs he permitted in his first 11 games of the season.
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