Pinch hitter Travis d’Arnaud drove in the game’s only run with a 10th-inning sacrifice fly and the Atlanta Braves pulled out a 1-0 road win over the San Francisco Giants on Monday.
The contest began with a brilliant pitchers’ duel featuring left-handers Chris Sale of Atlanta and Blake Snell of San Francisco.
d’Arnaud’s fly to deep right came after Sean Murphy had blooped a single off the fifth Giants pitcher, Taylor Rogers (1-4), to move automatic runner Orlando Arcia to third.
Rafael Iglesias (2-1), who threw a 1-2-3 ninth to force extra innings, retired the Giants in order with a runner at second in the bottom of the 10th to complete the shutout.
With an eighth win in 12 extra-inning games, the Braves moved 2 1/2 games ahead of the Giants in the race for the final National League wild-card spot. San Francisco dropped its second straight game.
Sale and Snell set the tone for the low-scoring affair with double-digit strikeout performances in which neither got a decision.
On the 10th anniversary of his only previous appearance in San Francisco, a game in which he threw eight shutout innings with 12 strikeouts, Sale was a mirror image of his old self. He allowed just three hits and no walks in seven scoreless innings this time, once again striking out 12.
The Giants’ best shot at Sale came in the first inning, when Atlanta center fielder Ramon Laureano misplayed Tyler Fitzgerald’s inning-opening fly ball into a two-base error. Mark Canha followed with a single, putting runners at the corners.
Sale retired the next three batters, two on strikeouts.
Meanwhile, 10 days after no-hitting the Cincinnati Reds, Snell held the Braves without a hit for six innings before Marcell Ozuna lined a leadoff double down the left field line in the seventh.
After Matt Olson dribbled an infield single to put two aboard, Snell struck out Arcia before handing the ball to Randy Rodriguez, who struck out both men he faced to preserve the scoreless deadlock.
Snell allowed just the two hits in his 6 1/3 shutout innings. He walked three and struck out 11.
Ozuna’s double was the only extra-base hit in a contest that featured a total of just seven hits, four by the Braves. Ozuna, who also singled in the ninth, was the only player with multiple hits.
–Field Level Media