On a night in which a No. 13 faux gold chain was given out to fans in his honor, Ronald Acuna Jr. hit two of Atlanta’s five home runs as the Braves beat the visiting Minnesota Twins 6-2 on Tuesday to extend their winning streak to four games.
Acuna, Austin Riley, Sean Murphy and Michael Harris II all went deep for Atlanta, which has won 12 of its last 13 games. The Braves upped their major-league-leading home run total to 146. Atlanta has hit 54 homers in June, just shy of the single-month franchise record of 56 recorded in June of 2019.
In the bottom of the first, Acuna hit the first pitch he saw for his 29th career leadoff homer. It was the 12th time he has hit a leadoff home run on the first pitch of an at-bat. He hit another solo shot in the second inning, giving him 19 homers for the season.
It was the 10th multi-home run game of Acuna’s career.
The winning pitcher was Bryce Elder (6-1). He worked six innings and allowed two runs on four hits, with four walks and four strikeouts. Michael Tonkin and Ben Heller combined for three innings of scoreless relief to seal the victory.
The losing pitcher was Joe Ryan (8-5), who was knocked out after he allowed six runs on nine hits with five strikeouts in three innings.
The Braves homered three times and scored four runs in the first inning. After Acuna connected, Ozzie Albies followed with a triple and Riley went deep for the 14th time this season. Murphy closed the inning with a 445-foot solo blast to center field.
Atlanta scored two more times in the second inning. Harris lined his seventh homer to right field, a 438-foot shot that got lodged in a speaker above the Chop House restaurant. Acuna followed with a drive that hugged the left field line.
The Twins scored in the first inning when Carlos Correa scored on shortstop Orlando Arcia’s fielding error, one of four errors committed by the Braves. Minnesota got another run in the fourth on Edouard Julien’s sacrifice fly to left field.
–Field Level Media