Ian Anderson was excellent yet again for the Braves in his second career start and Marcell Ozuna led an offensive explosion with three home runs as the Braves routed the Red Sox by the score of 10-3.
The Braves got on the board early against Ryan Weber as Freddie Freeman was hit by a pitch in the first inning which was followed immediately by Marcell Ozuna yanking a two-run homer over the monster to give the Braves a quick 2-0 lead. The Braves would also threaten later in the inning, including a double from the scorching hot Austin Riley, but Weber would get out of the inning with runners on second and third.
Boston would claw their way back into the game, though, against Ian Anderson who was not quite as sharp as he was in his debut against the Yankees. In the the bottom of the third, Alex Verdugo, who has been a pain the Braves’ butts this series, knocked in a run with a single. Rafael Devers would then drive Verdugo home on an RBI single as well to tie the game at two, although his trip home was aided by a wild pitch earlier. Anderson was lucky that the balls Verdugo and Devers hit were just singles as both of them were not fooled at all and those pitches were smoked.
Ian would go on to prevent any other Sox from crossing the plate and, despite a dicey fifth inning, ended his night with a 6 IP, 6 H, 2 ER, 1 BB, 8 K line. Not too shabby....not too shabby at all.
The Braves’ offense finally got going again in the sixth inning. The first three Braves batters reached base including an RBI single from Austin Riley that drove home Nick Markakis. After a Duvall strikeout and Camargo pop out, Ender hit one of his patented rollers to second base, but this one turned into a hit and gave the Braves another run.
In the seventh inning, it was Marcell Ozuna again with his second home run of the night to push the Braves’ lead to 5-2. The Braves would try to threaten after that, but couldn’t capitalize on a d’Arnaud single so the lead stayed at three runs.
The bottom of the order helped out again in the top of the eighth as after back to back hits from, wait...this can’t be right, Johan Camargo and Ender Inciarte (?) put two on for Dansby Swanson who promptly drove Johan in with a single to make it a 6-2 game. Thats when things escalated in a hurry as Freddie Freeman lined another RBI single and on the very next pitch, Ozuna hit ANOTHER homer, his third of the evening, to put the rout on as the Braves led 10-2.
Marcell for THREE. pic.twitter.com/OJKc0I6b29
— MLB (@MLB) September 2, 2020
The Red Sox would still try their best. Jackie Bradley drove in Bogaerts in the bottom of eighth against Shane Greene to make it a 10-3. The Braves would go quietly in the top of the ninth and after three batters in the bottom of the ninth, Huascar Ynoa secured the win.