Mauricio Dubón, Chris Sale help Braves win series opener at Phillies

Mauricio Dubón continues to be a lethal and versatile weapon for the Atlanta Braves.

Making a fairly rare start in center field for Friday’s series opener at the Philadelphia Phillies as the Braves elected to sit Michael Harris II against a left-handed starter, Dubón paid off that decision with a leaping catch in the outfield and, more importantly, an insurance homer late in Atlanta’s 5-2 win over the Phillies.

With the Braves clinging to a 3-2 lead after escaping a few jams where the Phillies threatened to tie the game or take the lead, Dubón followed Mike Yastrzemski’s one-out walk with a 390-foot two-run blast to left for his 11th homer of the season.

Dubón finished the night with two hits, two runs and two RBIs.

The Braves (84-57) didn’t end up needing the insurance as a rested bullpen didn’t allow a single baserunner over the final three innings after Chris Sale’s strong start. But it still allowed for some breathing room which made for a less stressful conclusion

The win pushed the Braves’ record against the Phillies to 6-1 and their NL East lead to five games. It also means that if Atlanta wins one of its final six games against Philadelphia, it will hold the head-to-head tiebreaker should the teams end up tied in the standings.

The Braves came up empty in the first inning despite Ronald Acuña Jr.’s first-pitch double to right-center to lead off the game.

But Atlanta would not be denied in the second inning. After Lane Thomas walked and Dubón singled to begin the inning, the bottom of the order came through with some situational hitting. Austin Riley opened the scoring with an RBI single to right, and Ha-Seong Kim followed with an RBI groundout to make it 2-0.

Acuña then came through for the second time in as many innings, this time with a two-out RBI single to score Riley and extend the Atlanta lead to 3-0.

Unfortunately for the Braves, that proved to be all they could manage against Phillies ace Cristopher Sánchez. Starting with the final out of the second inning, he faced 13 of the final 16 batters he faced, giving up three runs on five hits over six innings with five strikeouts and three walks.

Still, Sánchez took his second loss to the Braves in as many starts this season, accounting for 40% of his five losses this campaign.

The Phillies gradually chipped into that deficit behind a pair of moments from Alec Bohm, who delivered an RBI double in the second inning and a wall-scraper of a solo homer in the fourth inning — the first homer Sale had allowed since July 4.

Sale, though, ensured Atlanta would remain ahead when he exited the game after six innings thanks to some impressive resolve.

The Phillies put two runners in scoring position with two outs in the fifth, but Sale got Bryce Harper to pop out to third base to end the threat.

Philadelphia again put the tying run in scoring position with a leadoff double from Luis Arráez in the sixth, but Sale retired the next three batters, the last two by strikeout, to end his outing.

Sale gave up two runs on six hits, striking out seven and walking one.

Acuña added a third hit, an infield single, in the seventh inning. He now has three three-hit games in his last seven appearances after he had none in his first 81 games of the season.

Paired with the Dubón homer, Didier Fuentes and Raisel Iglesias ensured there would be no late-inning drama. Fuentes retired all six batters he faced over the seventh and eighth innings on 21 pitches (18 strikes). Iglesias worked a 1-2-3 ninth with a pair of strikeouts to register his 30th save of the season.

A win in the opener takes some of the pressure off for the Braves. They now need to win just one of the next three games to ensure a split with the Phillies in this road four-game set and keep their division lead at least as large as it was entering the weekend.

They’ll look to secure that Saturday night with Martín Pérez (8-8, 3.05 ERA) facing off against Philadelphia’s Zack Wheeler (11-5, 3.31).