The Atlanta Braves struck early again with six first-inning runs and rolled to their seventh consecutive win, 7-0 over the Miami Marlins on Saturday.
Ronald Acuna and Ozzie Albies hit back-to-back homers to ignite the six-run first and Charlie Morton struck out five in 5 2/3 innings to keep the Braves surging into July.
Atlanta (55-27) has won 23 of its last 27 games and has taken over baseball’s best record from the Tampa Bay Rays, who held the honour since opening the season 13-0.
After Acuna and Albies took rookie Eury Perez deep, Austin Riley and Matt Olson singled before Sean Murphy doubled home a run. Marcell Ozuna’s two-run double made it 5-0 and one out later another double by Orlando Arcia capped the early outburst.
The six runs gave the Braves 87 in the opening inning in their last 82 games, including 11 in the first two games of this series.
Perez entered the game with an MLB-best 21-inning scoreless streak and a 1.34 ERA but lasted just a third of an inning, allowing six runs and seven hits.
Atlanta has won eight of nine meetings this season against Miami by a combined 77-26 margin.
Bohm powers Phillies to rout
Alec Bohm hit two homers and drove in a career high-tying six runs to lead the Philadelphia Phillies to a 19-4 drubbing of the Washington Nationals.
Kyle Schwarber had a grand slam, and Nick Castellanos fell a triple shy of the cycle with three RBIs as part of Philadelphia’s 18-hit attack.
The 19 runs were the most scored by Philadelphia since a 20-1 win over the Miami Marlins on April 7, 2018.
Rangers’ Eovaldi shuts down Astros for 10th win
Nathan Eovaldi continued his stellar season with seven scoreless innings and the AL West-leading Texas Rangers defeated the second-place Houston Astros, 5-2.
Eovaldi struck out five and limited the Astros to two singles while working around a season-high four walks to join Tampa Bay Rays ace Shane McClanahan as the only 10-game winners in the AL.
All-Stars Marcus Semien, Corey Seager and Josh Jung each drove in a run and Jonah Heim – also an All-Star – had three hits with a run scored.