Braves stay hot in Arizona, blow out Diamondbacks

Left-hander Chris Sale won his first game of the season to remain perfect against Arizona and the Atlanta Braves beat the Diamondbacks 8-2 in the opener of a three-game series Friday in Phoenix.

Eli White and Austin Riley each had two hits and two RBIs for the Braves, Michael Harris II had two hits and scored twice and Sale improved to 4-0 with a 2.57 ERA in five career appearances against Arizona.

Sale (1-2) gave up five hits and one run in five innings, leaving after 104 pitches. He struck out four and walked two. Sale was the unanimous 2024 NL Cy Young winner when he led the league in wins, ERA and strikeouts.

Alex Verdugo and Ozzie Albies had RBI doubles and Matt Olson extended his hitting streak to nine games for the Braves, who have won six of seven.

Arizona starter Zac Gallen (1-4) gave three runs on four hits, all in the second inning, with six strikeouts and two walks. He retired the final 10 he faced after giving up Riley's RBI single to cap the Braves' three-run third.

Gabriel Moreno and Jorge Barrosa had run-scoring hits and Eugenio Suarez doubled, walked twice and scored twice for the Diamondbacks, who have lost five of seven.

The Braves broke it open with two unearned runs in the sixth after third baseman Suarez's two-out throwing error and scored three runs off Yilber Diaz in the eighth on RBIs by Albies, White and Riley.

Atlanta opened the scoring in the second. Harris singled with one out and scored on White's double into the left field corner. Verdugo blooped a double down the left field line with two outs to drive in White, and Riley followed with a single to make it 3-0.

The D-backs scored off Sale in the fourth. Suarez walked with one out before Tim Tawa and Jorge Barrosa singled. Barrosa made his first start since being recalled from Triple-A Reno on Tuesday.

Atlanta padded its lead to 5-1 off Juan Morillo in the sixth. After Olson and Harris singled, Suarez threw errantly to first on White's routine two-out grounder, enabling Olson to score. Nick Allen singled in Harris.

--Field Level Media