Michael Harris II swatted a tiebreaking two-run homer in the ninth inning as the visiting Atlanta Braves’ bats woke up and went deep four times, rallying past the Tampa Bay Rays, 5-4, on Saturday afternoon.
Harris, who was 2-for-4 with a stolen base and walk, broke a 3-3 tie with his second long ball, a shot to right center off Cole Sulser (0-1).
Sean Murphy went deep twice, and Ozzie Albies homered for Atlanta. Austin Riley and Nick Allen (double, run) had three hits apiece as part of a 15-hit showing.
Dylan Lee (1-1) pitched the eighth, while Raisel Iglesias record his second save.
Over five innings, Braves starter AJ Smith-Shawver yielded two runs on six hits. He fanned seven and walked two.
Tampa Bay’s Jonathan Aranda went 3-for-3 with a homer, three RBIs and walked twice. Junior Caminero homered, while Jose Caballero had three hits and stole a base. Yandy Diaz had two hits, a double and scored twice.
Starting pitcher Drew Rasmussen was strong over five scoreless innings. He allowed four hits, all singles, and struck out seven with a walk.
Caminero put the home side up in the bottom half of the first inning, launching an 85 mph flat slider an estimated 405 feet to center on the breezy day for his second home run.
In the third, Smith-Shawver gave up singles to Diaz and Brandon Lowe before losing control of the zone. The 22-year-old issued a bases-loaded walk to Aranada to go down 2-0, got a strikeout of Christopher Morel and fanned Kameron Misner to escape more trouble.
Like Caminero earlier, Murphy smoked a solo shot to center, a 403-foot shot to finally put the visitors on the board leading off the seventh. But after Atlanta loaded the bases, Edwin Uceta whiffed Riley to keep it 2-1.
Aranda rebuilt the lead to two with an RBI single to score Diaz after his leadoff double, but Albies and Murphy went back-to-back to make it 3-3 in the eighth.
Aranda popped a solo homer off Iglesias in the ninth for Tampa Bay’s final run.
