ATLANTA (AP) — Marcell Ozuna homered and Austin Riley hit a tiebreaking double during a four-run rally in the eighth inning Saturday that lifted the Atlanta Braves to a 6-5 victory over the San Diego Padres.
The Braves tagged reliever Steven Wilson (3-1) for Ozzie Albies’ RBI single, Ozuna’s two-run homer and Riley’s go-ahead hit.
“It’s what you play for here every day,” Albies said. “You want to win games, so we came back and it was huge. We never give up. That’s our game. We keep pushing and pushing envelopes every day because we want to win. You guys saw it. We got down and we came back because that’s how we play the game.”
The game appeared to turn in San Diego’s favor in top of the eighth when first baseman Matt Olson misplayed Trent Grisham’s grounder for a two-base error with one out. Grisham advanced on Will Smith’s wild pitch and scored on Jorge Alfaro’s single to tie it at 2.
After Jake Cronenworth doubled, Jurickson Profar drew a walk to set the stage for Braves closer Kenley Jansen (2-0) to face Manny Machado with the bases loaded. Machado hit a grounder to Riley at third base, but his throw to second sailed into shallow center field for an error that allowed two runs to score.
San Diego added another run to make it 5-2 on Eric Hosmer’s RBI forceout.
“It’s a disappointing loss but it’s indicative of the way the series is shaping up,” Padres acting manager Ryan Christenson said. “This is two really good teams slugging it out with each other.
“Last night’s game was back and forth with one delivering a blow and the other team answering and the other team delivering a blow and the team answering again. That’s the same thing that happened today,” he said.
Christenson is running the team while manager Bob Melvin recovers from prostate surgery earlier in the…
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