Major League Baseball
Atlanta 7, Philadelphia 2
When: 7:35 PM ET, Friday, September 22, 2017
Where: SunTrust Park, Cumberland, Georgia
Temperature: 76°
Umpires: Home - Alfonso Marquez, 1B - Larry Vanover, 2B - Stu Scheurwater, 3B - David Rackley
Attendance: 33702

ATLANTA -- The Atlanta Braves continue to get more offense than for which they bargained when they signed free agent Kurt Suzuki during the offseason.

Suzuki produced his third multi-home run game of the season to spark Atlanta to a 7-2 win over the Philadelphia Phillies on Friday night at SunTrust Park.

"I'm just trying to go out there and keep playing," Suzuki said. "It would have been cool if this was a playoff push. It's not that type of situation, but you still have to be a professional and go out there every night, grind out at-bats, play hard and see what happens."

Suzuki was 2-for-4 with three RBIs. His two-run shot in the first inning off starter Ben Lively sparked a five-run rally and his solo homer in the seventh off reliever Yacksel Rios provided some insurance. It was the fifth multi-homer game of Suzuki's career. He has 18 home runs as he continues to exceed his previous high of 15 set with Oakland in 2009.

"He's right on everything," Atlanta manager Brian Snitker said. "On every swing, it seems like he just misses a pitch if he doesn't hit it out. It's been a great formula."

Suzuki has 16 home runs since July 1. He and Tyler Flowers, the other half of Atlanta's catching tandem, have combined for 28 home runs, second best in the National League.

Atlanta's Nick Markakis was 2-for-4 with three RBIs and Ozzie Albies and Johan Camargo also added two hits each. The Braves scored their most runs since tallying eight against the Nationals on Sept. 13.

The run support benefited rookie left-hander Sean Newcomb (4-8), who won his second straight start. He pitched 5 1/3 innings and allowed two runs, four hits and two walks with five strikeouts. He has allowed three or fewer runs in 10 of his last 11 starts.

"It's been really good," Newcomb said. "I hit a little bit of a rough patch, but I feel like I've been able to zone in a little bit. My off-speeds have been better. I've definitely learned a lot."

Snitker said, "We're working on the changeup and the breaking ball. The thing the kid's got is a fastball and he can throw it in fastball counts to good hitters. I think once he gets his feet on the ground and really has the belief, you'll see more out of him."

Rookie reliever Dan Winkler entered the game with two runners on base in the sixth and retired both batters he faced to end the threat. The Atlanta bullpen followed with scoreless innings from rookie A.J. Minter, Sam Freeman and Luke Jackson, who struck out two batters in the ninth.

Lively (3-7) allowed six runs, eight hits and two walks in five innings. It was as many runs as Lively had allowed in his last three starts combined.

"Bad first inning," Philadelphia manager Pete Mackanin said. "Poor control, command, then he settled down and did OK. He battled his way back and gave us some innings. Too many pitches (99) in five innings. He didn't hit his spots and he didn't change speeds and he got hurt."

Lively said he was unable to locate his fastball in the first inning.

"The big part of my game is the fastball and it doesn't help when the fastball is staying toward the middle," Lively said. "Just one of those games."

Philadelphia's Nick Williams was 2-for-3 with a sacrifice fly and two RBIs. Cesar Hernandez had a double, three walks and scored a run.

The Braves jumped on Lively for five runs in the first inning. The first six Atlanta batters got hits. Albies had an RBI single, Markakis had a two-run single and Suzuki smacked a two-run homer, his 17th.

"We were out of the game after that first inning," Mackanin said. "Their guy did a pretty good job."

Atlanta added a run in the second when Markakis lined a two-out RBI single that scored Newcomb, who walked to open the inning.

Philadelphia scored in the fourth to make it 6-1. Hernandez doubled, Freddy Galvis singled and Williams got the RBI with a sacrifice fly to left field.

NOTES: Atlanta CF Ender Inciarte was 2-for-5 on Friday and has 193 hits for the season. Inciarte is trying to become the first Brave to reach 200 hits since Marquis Grissom in 2007. Inciarte was ruled safe on a grounder to shortstop in the fourth inning, but the call was overturned on appeal. ... Atlanta rookie A.J. Minter pitched a scoreless inning on Friday and has not issued a walk in his first 12 career games. Since at least 1913, no Braves pitcher has issued zero walks through the first 12 games of his career. Minter has struck out 15 of the last 29 batters he has faced. ... Philadelphia CF Odubel Herrera grounded out with the bases loaded in the eighth inning and is 1-for-13 with the bases loaded this season. His 14-game hitting streak against Atlanta ended when he went 0-for-4.
Top Game Performances
Starting Pitchers
Philadelphia   Atlanta
Ben Lively Player Sean Newcomb
Loss W/L Win
5.0 IP 5.1
4 Strikeouts 5
8 Hits 4
10.80 ERA 3.38
Hitting
Philadelphia   Atlanta
Nick Williams Player Kurt Suzuki
2 Hits 2
2 RBI 3
0 HR 2
2 TB 8
.667 Avg .500
Team Stats Summary
 
Team Hits HR TB Avg LOB K RBI BB SB Errors
Philadelphia 6 0 8 .194 19 9 2 5 0 0
Atlanta 11 2 19 .324 12 7 7 3 0 0