After Sean Murphy tied the game with a two-run homer with two outs in the ninth inning, the Atlanta Braves scored once in the 11th to rally for a 5-4 win over the Arizona Diamondbacks on Monday in a clash of 2023 National League play-off teams.

Marcell Ozuna drove in the eventual winning run with a sacrifice fly in the 11th that plated designated runner Austin Riley, who had advanced from second to third on an infield single by Matt Olson.

Riley homered earlier in the game and Murphy went 2 for 4 as the Braves took the opener of this four-game series and won their third consecutive contest.

Atlanta's bats were largely quiet for much of the night thanks to an impressive MLB debut by Arizona starter Yilber Diaz, but came alive against struggling closer Paul Sewald with the Braves trailing 3-1 in the ninth.

Sewald retired the first two hitters in the inning before Eddie Rosario extended Atlanta's chances with a single. Murphy then drove a 1-1 pitch over the wall in right center field to hand Sewald a third blown save in his last three appearances.

Diaz was in line for the victory after allowing just one run on four hits through six innings.

Both teams scored once in the 10th, with the Braves getting a sacrifice fly from Ozzie Albies and the Diamondbacks the same from Luis Perdomo.

Ozuna's fly ball in the 11th put Atlanta back ahead, and Joe Jimenez stranded the tying run in the bottom of the inning to record his second save of the season. 

Atlanta closer Raisel Iglesias earned the win after working two innings and permitting one unearned run.

Riley's 12th homer of the season gave the Braves an early edge in the first inning, and the Diamondbacks were held scoreless by Bryce Elder through the first five innings before breaking through in the sixth.

Perdomo led off the bottom of the sixth with a bloop single and took second when Braves shortstop Orlando Arcia mishandled the ball on the play, then scored on Corbin Carroll's single to tie the game at 1-1.

Elder then walked the next two batters to load the bases before being relieved by Grant Holmes, who walked Christian Walker on four pitches to give Arizona the lead. Lourdes Gurriel Jr. followed with a sacrifice fly to provide the Diamondbacks a two-run cushion.

Elder was charged with three runs allowed on four hits over five-plus innings.

Late error allows Tigers to edge Guardians

Jake Rogers scored the game's lone run on a Cleveland error in the eighth inning as the suddenly surging Detroit Tigers came through with a 1-0 victory over the American League Central-leading Guardians to open a four-game series.

Rogers greeted reliever Scott Barlow with a double to open the eighth and took third on Wenceel Perez's second hit of the night. Two batter later, Mark Canha hit a grounder that eluded the glove of Guardians' shortstop Brayan Roccio to allow the Detroit catcher to cross the plate and break the scoreless tie.

The Guardians couldn't mount a baserunner after the seventh inning, as Tyler Holton retired all five batters he faced to record the win and Shelby Miller threw a perfect ninth to close out the Tigers' fourth consecutive victory.

Detroit went 8-18 from June 5-July 4 before sweeping a three-game series on the road from the Cincinnati Reds this past weekend.

The game featured a strong duel between starting pitchers that didn't factor in the decision. Detroit's Keider Montero allowed just three hits over 6 1/3 scoreless innings in his third career major league start, while Cleveland's Gavin Williams struck out five over 5 1/3 scoreless innings in his second start back from an elbow injury that had sidelined him since spring training.

Cardinals stay hot with shutout of Nationals

Alec Burleson homered and drove in three runs to back a sharp start from Miles Mikolas as the St. Louis Cardinals recorded a series-clinching 6-0 win over the Washington Nationals.

Paul Goldschmidt added a solo homer among his two hits to help the Cardinals take three of four meetings of the wraparound series. St. Louis improved to 33-18 since May 12, the best record in the National League over that stretch.

MIkolas (7-7) scattered six hits without a walk over 6 1/3 innings before relievers Andrew Kittredge and JoJo Romero finished the shutout by working 1 1/3 innings each.

Washington starter Mitchell Parker (5-5) was hung with the loss despite yielding two runs - one earned - and striking out six over seven innings.

The Cardinals' first run off Parker came courtesy of an error by Washington shortstop CJ Abrams, who threw wildly to first base on a double-play attempt to allow Nolan Gorman to score from second in the third inning. Gorman and Michael Siani had opened the frame with back-to-back infield singles.

Goldschmidt's homer off Parker in the fourth extended the lead to 2-0, and Burleson increased it further with a solo shot off Jacob Barnes in the eighth. Goldschmidt reached on an error later in the inning and came home on Brendan Donovan's two-out double for a 4-0 St. Louis advantage.

Donovan finished 2 for 4 and extended his streak of reaching base safely to 21 straight games.

The Cardinals tacked on two more runs in the ninth when Gorman and Siani each singled before both later scored on Burleson's base hit.

Rhys Hoskins homered in his return to Philadelphia, but his former team defeated his current one as the Phillies earned a 3-1 victory over the Milwaukee Brewers in Monday's opener of a three-game series between National League division leaders. 

Hoskins spent his first seven MLB seasons in Philadelphia and helped the Phillies win the 2022 NL pennant. After missing the entire 2023 campaign with a torn ACL, he signed a two-year, $34million contract to join the Brewers in the offseason.

The first baseman received a standing ovation from the Citizens Bank Park crowd during his first at-bat, then later took former teammate Zack Wheeler deep in the seventh inning for his 10th home run of the season.

Hoskins' blast was the lone run allowed in seven innings by Wheeler (7-3), who held Milwaukee to five hits and struck out six. Jose Alvarado recorded his 10th save with a perfect ninth as the Phillies snapped NL Central-leading Milwaukee's five-game winning streak and improved to 42-19, tied with the New York Yankees for the majors' best record.

Wheeler got all the support he needed when Philadelphia recorded four hits, including run-scoring singles from Edmundo Sosa and Johan Rojas, off Bryce Wilson in the second inning to build a 2-0 lead.

David Dahl extended the margin further with a solo homer off Wilson in the fourth. Dahl finished 2 for 3 with two runs scored in his Phillies' debut after being called up from the minors when Philadelphia placed left fielder Brandon Marsh on the injured list prior to the game.

Wheeler made the lead stand until Hoskins' homer in the seventh by working out of a pair of earlier jams. The Philadelphia ace got Brice Turang to bounce into a bases-loaded double play to prevent the Brewers from scoring in the third, and Hoskins was thrown out at the plate by Rojas while attempting to score on Blake Perkins' single to center in the fifth.

Wilson (3-2) allowed all three Philadelphia runs in 5 2/3 innings of work after entering the game in the second inning.

Diamondbacks stun reeling Giants on Smith's homer in ninth

Pavin Smith connected for a game-winning two-run homer in the ninth inning as the Arizona Diamondbacks extended the San Francisco Giants' losing streak to a season-high five games with a 4-2 victory.

Smith, pinch-hitting for Eugenio Suarez, sent Randy Rodriguez's pitch over the center field wall with one out and Jake McCarthy aboard to snap a 2-2 tie and give the defending NL champion Diamondbacks a third consecutive win.

McCarthy had reached on a double to precede Smith's second home run of the season.

Heliot Ramos went 2 for 4 for the skidding Giants and tied the contest at 2-2 with a solo home run off Ryne Nelson in the seventh inning.

Nelson pitched a career-high 7 2/3 innings and allowed two runs on six hits before giving way to Ryan Thompson, who tossed 1 1/3 scoreless innings for the win.

Lourdes Gurriel hit his 100th career homer, a solo shot off Spencer Howard in the second that gave Arizona a 1-0 lead. The Diamondbacks scored again later in the inning when Suarez tripled and came home on Blaze Alexander's two-out single.

The Giants cut their deficit to 2-1 on Matt Chapman's fourth-inning double that plated Brett Wisely, who had led off the inning with a single.

Wisely and Chapman each finished with two hits for San Francisco, while Alexander went 2 for 3 for Arizona.

Rogers' two homers lift Tigers over Rangers

Jake Rogers' second home run of the game snapped a tie in the eighth inning as the Detroit Tigers earned a 2-1 win over the Texas Rangers in the opener of a three-game series.

Rogers launched a pitch from Jose Leclerc into the left seats to break a 1-1 deadlock and record the third multihomer game of his career. The blast made a winner out of Beau Brieske after the right-hander yielded just one hit over three scoreless innings in relief of Detroit starter Tarik Skubal.

Skubal served up a lead-off homer to Marcus Semien in the first inning but kept the Rangers off the board for the remainder of his six-inning stint. The lefty scattered seven hits and struck out seven to help the Tigers to their seventh win in 10 games.

The defending World Series champion Rangers went 0 for 7 with runners in scoring position to drop two games below .500 at 29-31.

Rogers brought Detroit even with a two-out homer in the third, the only run surrendered by Texas starter Nathan Eovaldi in 5 2/3 innings. The veteran hurler gave up just three hits and fanned seven in his second start since missing nearly four weeks with a groin strain.

Semien and Corey Seager each had two hits for Texas, with Seager extending his hitting streak to 16 games with a pair of singles.