ATLANTA — Austin Riley heated up over the previous few days after which erupted in a thunderous method Thursday evening because the Braves claimed an 8-5 win over the Phillies at Truist Park.
Riley stole the highlight with two monstrous dwelling runs, however a group of Braves contributed to the decisive three-run eighth. Marcell Ozuna, who homered within the second inning, doubled earlier than scoring on Travis d’Arnaud’s go-ahead two-run single. d’Arnaud’s position has been decreased with Ozuna getting a lot of the begins as DH and Sean Murphy dealing with a majority of the catching duties.
But d’Arnaud continued to offer worth as he batted for Michael Harris II on this key eighth-inning state of affairs.
“I love me some Travvy,” Riley mentioned. “He’s one of a kind, just a team guy.”
As the Braves celebrated a second straight win, they’ve seen Riley getting again to the shape he confirmed when incomes prime 10 National League MVP Award finishes the previous two seasons. The veteran third baseman produced a .948 OPS by way of his first 17 video games after which constructed a .548 OPS over the 22 video games that adopted.
That month-long droop has been put within the rear-view mirror. Riley has hit .349 with a 1.047 OPS over the 11 video games since.
“He’s been a huge part of this team since I got here [in 2020],” d’Arnaud mentioned. “To see him turn it around after that little struggle he had is huge for us moving forward.”
Braves proper fielder Ronald Acuña Jr. has hit the second-most dwelling runs of 450-plus ft going again to his rookie season in 2018. But he has by no means accomplished what Riley did on Thursday, when he hit a 459-foot homer off Aaron Nola within the first inning after which broken the Phillies veteran with a 458-foot solo shot within the fifth.
“It shows how strong he is,” d’Arnaud mentioned. “To do it twice in one game is incredible. I don’t think I’ve ever done it once my whole career.”
d’Arnaud does in reality have two such homers, one he hit in opposition to David Price in 2019 and one other hit in opposition to Max Scherzer in ’17. But hitting two homers of that distance in a sport is sort of uncommon.
In reality, Riley turned simply the third participant with two dwelling runs of 455-plus ft in a sport since Statcast started monitoring this knowledge in 2015. The others have been the Rockies’ Trevor Story (Sept. 5, 2018) and the Cubs’ Willson Contreras (Sept. 13, 2019). Colorado’s Charlie Blackmon (May 12, 2019) is the one different participant to hit two homers of 450-plus ft in a sport. Blackmon and Story each did this at hitter-friendly Coors Field.
These have been the third- and fourth-longest homers Riley has hit. He hit a career-long 473-foot dwelling run in St. Louis on April 3.
“The biggest bug has been my posture out over the plate,” Riley mentioned. “That’s been cleaned up. It’s baseball. This game has its ebbs and flows. It’s a matter of working every day and just trying to be the best version of yourself.”
Riley’s first two-homer sport of the yr and the fifth of his profession added to what has been a really productive week. He has 4 doubles and two homers over his previous 4 video games (14 at-bats).
So this actually wasn’t time for Nola to return to city. Riley is now 20-for-45 with 5 homers in opposition to the Phillies hurler.
“He’s a good hitter,” Nola mentioned. “He does not miss too many balls I throw over the plate.”
