Ronald Acuña’s homer lifts Braves to 2-1 victory over Diamondbacks

Friday night’s game was nearly identical to Thursday’s. A pitchers’ duel early set the stage for a late-inning Braves homer to take a lead. Only this time around, the Braves’ bullpen locked down a much-needed 2-1 victory to halt a four-game losing skid.

Ronald Acuña Jr. stepped to the plate in the eighth inning and absolutely crushed a ball 466 feet to dead-center field.

With a 2-1 lead in hand, Sean Newcomb came in to work the bottom of the eighth and continued to thrive in a bullpen role, throwing 13 of 18 pitches for strikes as he worked around a harmless two-out single.

Luke Jackson worked a perfect 9th inning with two strikeouts.

Earlier in the night, the Braves struck for the game’s first run in the fourth as Dansby Swanson tripled and was then brought in on an RBI-single from Freddie Freeman. The triple was one of three hits for Dansby as he elevated his average to .273 on the year.

Arizona would tie it up in the sixth on a two-out triple from Braves-killer David Peralta, who plated Ketel Marte in the process.

Julio Teheran could barely get his fastball above 88mph over six innings of work, but it didn’t stop him from turning out one of his best performances of the year. He struck out four, walked two and gave up just three hits.

Zack Greinke was equally impressive over seven frames, allowing the one run on five hits and no walks. He punched out seven Braves.

The Braves are 19-20.

Game three of the series will be Saturday at 8:10 p.m. ET. Kevin Gausman (1-3, 5.00) will look to right the ship against righty Merrill Kelly (3-3, 4.85 ERA).