Atlanta Braves stay hot, beat Yankees 5-3 in extra innings

It took extra innings, but the surging Atlanta Braves asserted themselves as a force to contend with by beating the Yankees Monday night.

IN CASE YOU MISSED… How could you?! The first place Atlanta Braves (49-34), fresh off a sweep of the Cardinals, traveled to the Bronx Monday and found a way to beat the second-place Yankees 5-3 in 11 innings.

Yankees slugger Aaron Judge got things started with a pop-up home run (yeah, that’s a thing) in the bottom of the first inning – his 23rd of the year. Johan Camargo got things started for the Braves in the bottom of the third, hitting his eighth homer of the season, a solo shot to make things even at 1-1.

Atlanta got two runs in the top of the second with RBI doubles from Kurt Suzuki and Ronald Acuna Jr. Nick Markakis and Suzuki came across the plate for Atlanta with those hits to put Atlanta on top 3-1.

In the fifth, New York evened the score at 3-3 when Gleyber Torres scored on a sacrifice fly from Didi Gregorius. The score would remain knotted up into extra innings.

Anibal Sanchez had a solid start for the Braves, throwing six innings. He gave up three runs on six hits, walking two and striking out four. Yankees’ pitcher Jonathan Loaisiga also gave up 3 runs during his 4th starting outing – lasting just 4 innings.

Atlanta would field five pitchers total in the 11-inning affair, with the win going to Jesse Biddle – bumping him to 2-0 on the year.

Likewise, the Yankees covered the rest of the game with 5 pitchers – their best were all involved for a total of 7 innings.  That might become important later in this series.

With what would prove the eventual winning runs, Acuna hit his own pop-up homer to right-center field just over the considerable reach of Aaron Judge in the top of the 11th innings, scoring himself and Danny Santana to put Atlanta up 5-3.  If only Judge could jump.

A.J. Minter got his fourth save of the year after working out of a bit of a jam with a pair of strikeouts in the inning.

Acuna would lead all Atlanta hitters in productivity, going 2-for-5 with a run and three RBI on the night. Markakis, Suzuki and Camargo also had a pair of hits each.

Meanwhile, the Yankees hitters scattered 10 hits – the suddenly red-hot Aaron Hicks had 2, but Judge and Stanton combined to go 2 for 9 (one homer) with 5 strikeouts… pretty much a routine day for them.

Next: Charlie Culberson: just how clutch is he?

Atlanta and New York will square off again for the second of three games with a schedules start time of 7:05 p.m. from the Bronx.