LOS ANGELES — Ronald Acuña Jr. homered for the third straight night at Dodger Stadium and Orlando Arcia hit a three-run shot in the 10th inning that sent the streaking Atlanta Braves to a 4-2 victory over Los Angeles on Saturday.
Bryce Elder pitched six effective innings and the Braves (90-45) won their sixth consecutive game, becoming the first major league club to reach 90 wins this season.
Atlanta will try for a four-game sweep Sunday in this much-anticipated matchup between the top two teams in the National League.
Married north of Los Angeles before Thursday’s game, Acuña once again outshined Dodgers star Mookie Betts in their chase for NL MVP.
With one out in the third inning, Acuña launched a 454-foot homer to center field that came off his bat like a rocket at an astounding 121.2 mph. It was the 32nd homer this year and third of the series for Acuña, the first player in big league history with 30 home runs and 60 stolen bases in a season.
Los Angeles tied it 1-all in the bottom half when Austin Barnes doubled on his bobblehead night and scored on Will Smith‘s double-play grounder.
That’s how it stayed until the 10th, when Sean Murphy drew a two-out walk from Alex Vesia (0-5) to put two runners on. Arcia drove the next pitch to left-center to give Atlanta a 4-1 lead.
Raisel Iglesias allowed Max Muncy‘s sacrifice fly in the bottom half before finishing for his 28th save. Michael Tonkin (6-2) worked a hitless inning for the win.
Betts went 0 for 4 with a walk and scored once. He struck out three times, including with the bases loaded in the fourth when he went down looking.
Los Angeles starter Emmet Sheehan permitted one run in four innings.
Elder worked around four walks and struck out four for the Braves, who have won 20 of 25 overall.
Source: www.espn.com