Atlanta — The Marlins and Braves was in an slugfest on Wednesday night at Truist Park in Atlanta, Ga. Braves manager Brian Snitker was just hoping to shake up lineup after a shutout loss.
The Braves set a National League record for runs scored in a game to beat the Marlins 29-9.
Adam Duvall smoked the Marlins by himself, he drove in nine runs with three homers, including a grand slam. Duvall the first player in franchise history with multiple three home run games, after hitting a two-run shot in the second, a three-run shot in the fifth, and a grand slam in the seventh. His nine RBI tied a single-game franchise record, matching the mark set by Tony Cloninger on July 3, 1966. RBI became an official statistic in 1920.
The Marlins is still only 3 1/2 games behind the NL East-leading Braves. They will play an important stretch of seven games in five days against the second-place Philadelphia Phillies starting Thursday night; The Phillies has been on tear winning seven of its past 10 games.
Atlanta opened the flood gates in the second inning for 11 runs and nearly matched the scoring mark since 1900, set by the Rangers in a 30-3 rout of the Baltimore Orioles in 2007.
“Pretty amazing,” said Freedie Freeman, who drove in six runs with three hits, including a two-run homer. “Hard to put into words, really, when you look up and see 29 runs on the board.”
The Braves had 23 hits, including seven homers, to score the most runs in their history in Boston, Milwaukee and Atlanta. They topped the old record by six runs. Duvall’s huge night came exactly a week after he hit three home runs in a game at Fenway.
“I’ve never seen an offense click like that, all together,” Freeman said.
A day after being shut out by the Marlins on four hits, the Braves erupted. Freeman said he woke up to a text from Snitker saying he’d be hitting second. Travis d’Arnaud had a three-run homer in the second as the new cleanup hitter.
Freeman now expects to be hitting second again.
“I would assume so,” Freeman said. “I think it would be very hard for him to change the lineup after scoring 29 runs.”
The big second inning knocked Pablo López out of the game. Duvall hit another homer, his 12th, in a six-run fifth and added the slam in the seventh off Josh Smith.
“I’ve known that homers come in bunches but something like that is pretty special,” Duvall said. “I’m going to enjoy this one tonight.”
Three runs scored on a sixth-inning double by Ronald Acuña Jr. that gave Atlanta a 25-8 lead and the franchise record for runs in a game.
No matter who Miami had on the hill, they had a tough time throwing strikes and getting outs. The roughest inning was in the bottom of the second, when the Braves beat up right-handers Pablo López and Jordan Yamamoto. Atlanta hit three home runs in that inning.
Ozzie Albies playing in his first game since Aug. 4 in his return from a wrist injury, had three hits, including a upper deck homer. Acuña also hit a three-run homer and drove in five runs.
Despite the loss, the Marlins took two of three for their first series win in Atlanta since Sept. 12-14, 2016.
López (3-4) allowed seven runs in only 1 2/3 innings. He had four walks.
“He just seemed to be out of sync early in that game with the walks and wasn’t getting anything really over,” Marlins manager Don Mattingly said.
Despite the run support, Atlanta left-hander Tommy Milone didn’t get the win. He allowed eight hits and eight runs in 3 1/3 innings.
Lewis Brinson hit a three-run homer for the Marlins. Jazz Chisholm, who was hitting .063 through six games, had a run-scoring triple and his first career homer.
Grant Dayton (2-0) got the victory for the Braves.
