Ozzie Albies homered on the first pitch of the game and the Atlanta Braves never looked back in a 10-1 win over the Philadelphia Phillies.
Brian Snitker shook up the Braves’ lineup prior to Sunday’s game dropping Ender Inciarte to ninth and going with Albies and Ronald Acuña Jr. moving into the top two spots in the order. The move paid off early as Albies jumped all over the first pitch he saw from Phillies starter Vince Velasquez and drove it out to right for his ninth home run of the season.
Atlanta struck again in the third as Inciarte and Albies both scored on an infield single by Nick Markakis. With the shift on, Phillies second baseman Cesar Hernandez was able to flag down Markakis’ hit in short right center but had no chance of preventing Albies from scoring.
Kurt Suzuki followed with a double to left that advanced Markakis to third before Johan Camargo launched his first home run of the season to right to extend the lead to 6-0.
The Phillies lone run came in the fourth when Aaron Altherr led off the inning with a double and later scored on a ground ball off the bat of Maikel Franco.
The Braves blew the game wide open in the eighth. Ryan Flaherty got things started with a one out walk and then moved up to third on a double by Inciarte. Albies scored them both with a double to right to make the score 8-1. Acuña Jr followed with a rocket to center field that banged off the 408 sign for another double that scored Albies to make it 9-1.
Atlanta tacked on another in the ninth as reliever Jesse Biddle doubled in his first career at bat to score Kurt Suzuki.
Brandon McCarthy did the job again for the Braves on the mound allowing five hits and one run over 5.1 innings. He struck out six and walked just three and defeated the Phillies for the third time this season.
Velasquez struggled again for the Phillies allowing seven hits and six runs in just four innings. He’s now allowed 13 earned runs in 12.2 innings against Atlanta this season.
Inciarte finished a home run shy of the cycle going 3-for-4 with a walk. Albies went 2-for-5 with 3 RBI and also scored three runs. He finishes the month of April with 22 extra base hits which is one shy of the major league record of 23 held by Jermaine Dye.
Acuña Jr. finished 2-for-3 with two doubles and two walks. Atlanta pounded out 11 hits including six doubles.
Atlanta takes 2-of-3 in the series and are now 6-3 against the Phillies on the season. They will enjoy an off day on Monday before opening up a three-game series in New York on Tuesday.