Braves batter Mitch Keller for a career-high 12 hits in cruising past Pirates

The Atlanta Braves got so many bloops, they didn’t need a blast.

They got a couple anyway.

A six-single inning featured three bloops that scored four runs against Pittsburgh Pirates starter Mitch Keller in the third inning, then Ronald Acuna Jr. and Eddie Rosario added blasts in the fourth to boost the Braves to a 8-2 win Friday night before a sellout crowd at Truist Park.

The game featured a matchup of All-Star pitchers in Keller and Atlanta’s Bryce Elder, but Keller delivered the worst statistical performance of his career. He allowed a career-high 12 hits and tied his career-high in giving up eight runs on 95 pitches over five innings.

Elder (12-4) showed why he hasn’t lost since the Pirates beat the Braves, 7-5, on Aug. 10. The 24-year-old right-hander allowed two runs on four hits and one walk while striking out nine, one shy of his career best. The Pirates went 1 for 8 with runners in scoring position against Elder.

Keller (11-9) stranded three runners in the first two innings, but his second time facing Atlanta’s order was a disaster. The Braves (92-48) showed why they have the best record in baseball, thanks to one of the most fearsome lineups.

The Braves loaded the bases in the third on singles by Acuna, Matt Olson and Marcell Ozuna and took a 1-0 lead on Rosario’s bloop to left. Travis d’Arnaud followed with a broken-bat bloop to left that drove in Olson and Ozuna to make it 3-0, and Orlando Arcia hit a two-out bloop to left to score Rosario for a 4-0 lead.

Acuna crushed Keller’s first-pitch fastball to start the fourth, sending it 455 feet at an exit velocity of 110.6 mph for his 35th home run and a 5-0 Braves edge. After Keller hit Olson with a pitch, Rosario hit a two-out, two-run shot to right for his 21st homer and a 7-0 lead.

The Braves added another in the fifth, when Arcia (3 for 4) doubled down the third base line and scored on Acuna’s single to right. Acuna, the leading candidate for NL MVP, was 3 for 4 with two RBIs and two runs scored and also reached on an error.

The Pirates finally cracked Elder in the sixth, when Ke’Bryan Hayes hit a two-out double to left and Jack Suwinski sent a 2-1 slider at the bottom of the strike zone 393 feet to right for a two-run homer to cut it to 8-2. It was Suwinski’s 24th home run and third since Aug. 30 after going five weeks without leaving the yard.

If there was a bright spot for the Pirates on the mound, it was that a pair of rookies relievers combined for three scoreless innings. Lefty Jose Hernandez matched Keller’s four strikeouts over two innings and righty Hunter Stratton kept the Braves at bay in the eighth.