Chris Sale shook off a homer on the seventh pitch of the game and Marcell Ozuna kept up his torrid start with two more RBI, leading the Atlanta Braves past the Cleveland Guardians 6-2 Friday night in the opener of a series matching MLB’s two best teams.
The reigning NL East champion Braves won for the 10th time in 11 games to improve to 18-6, pushing them a game ahead of the AL-leading Guardians (18-8).
Sale (3-1) surrendered a homer to the very first hitter, Steven Kwan, whose 389-foot shot down the right-field line bounced around in the Chop House restaurant. Braves right fielder Ronald Acuña Jr. barely moved as Kwan circled the bases with the third leadoff homer of his career.
That was pretty much it against Sale, who gave up only one more hit while going seven innings for his third straight start. He walked one, struck out six and threw 67 of 95 pitches for strikes.
Ozuna erased Cleveland’s tenuous lead in the fourth with a double to left off Logan Allen (3-1) that brought home Austin Riley and Matt Olson. Both runners reached without benefit of a hit — Riley walked and Olson was hit by a pitch.
Ozuna now has a majors-leading 31 RBI on the season, the most ever by a Braves player before the month of May. He had been tied with Dale Murphy (29 in 1985) and Hall of Famer Chipper Jones (29 in 1998).
Michael Harris II followed with a blooper to center that drove in Ozuna. The Big Bear initially paused, thinking the ball might be caught, before lumbering home with a flopping, headfirst slide.
Olson tacked on a run-scoring single in the fifth as the Braves knocked out Allen, who was charged with four runs in 4 2/3 innings. Orlando Arcia homered in the eighth off Pedro Avila.
The Guardians will continue their road series against the Atlanta Braves on Saturday, April 27th, with first pitch set for 7:20 p.m.