MIAMI — The Atlanta Braves’ run of six straight NL East titles ended Friday night with a 4-3 loss to the Miami Marlins as Jake Burger singled and doubled.
Atlanta (83-71) cannot mathematically win the division and trails by two games back for the last NL wild-card spot. The Braves have eight games left, including three at home against a New York Mets team they are trying to overcome.
“What we do is we worry about today,” manager Brian Snitker said. “We’re going to want to go 1-0 tomorrow. We control our own destiny, and we need to win the rest of them. We’re down to eight, and we need to take care of business tomorrow.”
Kyle Stowers also singled and doubled for Miami (57-97), on track for its worst record since going 57-105 in 2019.
Valente Bellozo (3-4) allowed three runs and seven hits in 5 1/3 innings and Anthony Bender, Lake Bachar, Declan Cronin and Jesus Tinoco combined for two-hit relief. Tinoco got three straight outs for his second save.
Charlie Morton (8-9) gave up four runs and seven hits in six innings and threw a run-scoring wild pitch in the fifth. He is 0-2 in his last three starts.
Ozzie Albies, a switch-hitter batting right-handed only, was 0 for 4 in his return from a fractured left wrist that had sidelined him since July 21.
Burger hit a run-scoring ground-rule double in a three-run first that included Stowers’ RBI single and Jonah Bride’s sacrifice fly.
“The story of that game was the first inning,” Morton said. “If I walk a couple guys, give up a couple hits, run my pitch count up or whatever, that’s fine. Got to the fifth inning and I felt like I was in a position where I could limit that run, and I didn’t.”
Added Morton: “It’s like the first inning, you look back and it’s like ‘man.’ But there’s still a lot of baseball to be played. If I could limit them to three (runs) through six (innings), that’s OK considering I gave up three runs in the first. So to give up that run in the fifth was more troubling and more frustrating than the ones in the first.”
Ramon Laureano and Orlando Arcia homered off Bellozo, with Laureano’s 404-foot drive to center cutting Atlanta’s deficit to 4-3 in the sixth. Former Marlin Jorge Soler had a sacrifice fly in the third.
The Marlins bounced back from a 20-4 loss to the Dodgers on Thursday, when star slugger Shohei Ohtani homered three times and stole two bases to become the first major leaguer with at least 50 home runs and 50 stolen bases in a season.
“It speaks a lot to the guys in this clubhouse,” Cronin said, “especially the pitching staff. We agreed to flush it and go after the Braves and try to spoil another playoff (contender’s) run. What you saw today was a perfect example of what baseball is all about. It doesn’t matter what you did the night before. You have another opportunity to come out here and compete.”
Burger was voted the Marlins’ most valuable player for the 2024 season by South Florida’s chapter of the Baseball Writers’ Association of America. Cronin was voted top rookie.
TRAINER’S ROOM
Braves: INF Cavan Biggio was optioned to Triple-A Gwinnett in the corresponding move as Albies was activated.
Marlins: RHP Sandy Alcantara (Tommy John) is playing light catch. … RHP Eury Pérez (Tommy John surgery) began light throwing at 45 feet.
UP NEXT
LHP Max Fried (9-10, 3.49) will start the second game of the series for the Braves on Saturday against Marlins RHP Adam Oller (1-4, 5.40).
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AP MLB: https://apnews.com/hub/mlb
