Braves falter late, fall to Red Sox to split two-game series

The win streak stops at three, as the Atlanta Braves drop a tight contest to the Red Sox on Wednesday night, 5-2.

Atlanta is now 25-12 on the year, with Boston sitting at 22-16.

Pitching was the story for the first part of the game, with the Brayan Bello and Dylan Lee trading scoreless innings to open the night. Boston struck first in the third with back-to-back RBI singles from Enrique Hernandez and Jarren Duran off Collin McHugh to jump ahead 2-0 in the 3rd inning.

Bello kept the Atlanta offense at bay for almost six innings, before Ronald Acuña Jr. hit a mammoth 470-foot home run to trim the Red Sox lead in half in the sixth inning. According to Baseball Savant, it's the sixth longest home run in Truist Park history. Eddie Rosario squeezed a single into right to score Austin Riley and tie the game at 2-2.

AJ Minter came on in the 7th and walked the first two batters he faced and struck out another before getting pulled from the game by Brian Snitker. Nick Anderson followed up with a big strikeout of Rafael Devers, before letting Raimel Tapia lace a double into right field to score what would be the game-winning run.

Boston scored two more in the ninth with Triston Casas hitting his fifth home run of the year into right center field off Raisel Iglesias to push the Boston lead to 5-2.

Former Brave Kenley Jansen closed out the game in the ninth to pick up his ninth save of 2023, and his 400th career save. He's seventh all-time in career saves, just 22 behind former Brave (and potentially future Hall of Famer) Billy Wagner.

Atlanta has the day off on Thursday, before hitting the road for a big three-game series in Toronto against the Blue Jays.