Grant Holmes didn’t allow a hit until the sixth inning, Austin Riley hit two home runs and drove in five and the visiting Atlanta Braves defeated the Toronto Blue Jays 8-4 on Monday night.
Sean Murphy added a two-run blast for Atlanta in the opener of a three-game series.
Myles Straw’s sixth-inning leadoff homer was the first hit against Holmes (1-1), who gave up three runs on two hits, walked two and struck out four over 7 2/3 innings.
Toronto left-hander Easton Lucas (2-1) gave up his first runs of the season in the first inning. He walked Matt Olson with two outs, then Murphy hammered an 0-1 changeup to left-center for his fourth homer of the season.
The Braves doubled their lead in the third. Eli White stroked a leadoff double to the gap in left-center. With one out, Riley socked a first-pitch fastball to left-center for his third home run.
Atlanta scored four more in the fifth. Nick Allen singled, White walked and Ozzie Albies lined an RBI double to the left field corner beyond the reach of a diving Alan Roden. Riley followed with his fourth homer, a three-run blast to left-center on a first-pitch slider.
Lucas (2-1) went five innings, allowing eight runs, six hits and four walks with three strikeouts.
Holmes did not allow a runner for the first four innings. Vladimir Guerrero Jr. flew out to the warning track in the first and Tyler Heineman reached the warning track in left with a third-inning flyout.
Andres Gimenez became Toronto’s first baserunner with a leadoff walk in the fifth but was promptly erased when Ernie Clement grounded into a double play.
Straw ended the no-hit bid when he went deep to left-center on a 3-2 fastball for his first homer since 2023.
Roden notched Toronto’s second hit when he grounded a one-out single past third base in the eighth. Straw walked and was forced out at second on Nathan Lukes’s soft groundout. Aaron Bummer relieved Holmes with runners at the corners and allowed Heineman’s two-run double to left.
Bummer, reinstated from the bereavement list earlier Monday, yielded a ninth-inning run on Clement’s single after Anthony Santander doubled.
Atlanta was without Marcell Ozuna, who is listed as day-to-day with hip inflammation.
–Field Level Media
