Adam Duvall homers twice as Braves sweep Pirates, who lose 6th straight

Where Bryan Reynolds found his groove in Atlanta, the Pittsburgh Pirates dug a ditch.

Reynolds rediscovered his swing and homered in back-to-back games, but Adam Duvall hit two home runs as the Braves went deep four times in a 5-3 win Sunday afternoon at Truist Park to sweep the four-game series.

Where the Braves won their major league-leading 11th consecutive game, the Pirates lost their sixth straight before continuing their road trip with a four-game swing at the NL Central-leading St. Louis Cardinals.

“We need to get out of Atlanta,” Pirates manager Derek Shelton said. “That’s a good baseball team. With the exception of one inning I thought we played really well against them. The four starting pitchers we saw are all really good. That lineup is as deep as any lineup we’ve seen. When the bottom of the order does damage, then you know it’s really deep. And they did damage.”

The Braves got four extra-base hits and four runs from their Nos. 7 and 8 batters. Pirates lefty Jose Quintana (1-4) allowed four runs on six hits and one walk while striking out four. Of his 92 pitches, 20 came in two at-bats against Braves second baseman Ozzie Albies. Quintana gave up three homers after allowing only two in his previous 11 starts.

A 12-pitch at-bat against Albies in the second inning, which resulted in a strikeout, took its toll. With two outs, William Contreras and Duvall hit back-to-back homers to give the Braves a 2-0 lead.

Contreras crushed a 2-1 fastball, hitting it with a 113.7 mph exit velocity and sending it 420 feet off the left-field foul pole for his ninth homer. Duvall followed by smacking a 1-0 fastball 421 feet to left for his fifth home run.

The Pirates answered in the third, when Diego Castillo drew a one-out walk, advanced to third on Tucupita Marcano’s double to right and scored on a sacrifice fly by Reynolds to cut it to 2-1.

Contreras and Duvall teamed for two more runs in the fourth, as Contreras doubled to right-center and scored on Duvall’s two-run homer to right for a 4-1 Braves lead. Duvall turned on Quintana’s changeup low and away for an opposite-field homer with a 106.3 mph exit velocity that sailed 420 feet.

“The second homer for Duvall was tough for me,” Quintana said. “It was a good pitch, exactly what I want, down and away. He pulled it really good, made a really good swing to get a homer to right field.”

Braves starter Kyle Wright (7-3) allowed three runs on five hits and two walks while striking out seven in six innings. But the Pirates cut their deficit to one run in the fifth inning.

Marcano, who went 3 for 4 in the leadoff spot, hit a two-out single in the fifth to set the table for Reynolds to drill Wright’s 2-1 fastball inside 353 feet to right for his 10th homer and make it 4-3.

It marked the ninth time in his career — and second time this season — Reynolds has homered in successive games. He also homered in back-to-back games at the Cincinnati Reds on May 7-8. Reynolds went 2 for 4 with three RBIs, his fourth consecutive game with multiple hits. He’s slashing .389/.421/.583 in nine games this month.

In the four-game series against the Braves, Reynolds went 10 for 15 with a double, two homers, five RBIs and four runs scored while boosting his batting average from .216 to .249. It’s the first time since 2019 a Pirates player has had double-digit hits in a series, dating to Adam Frazier collecting 10 in a four-game series against the Chicago Cubs.

Shelton doesn’t know what’s gotten into Reynolds, but he’s happy to see the All-Star center fielder hitting the ball after batting .194 in April and .224 last month. Reynolds has six homers since May 21.

“If I knew that, we’d transfer it into April and May,” Shelton said. “He’s taking good swings. It’s good to see him start to get hot.”

Reynolds singled in the eighth but was picked off trying to steal second for the final out. Reynolds could only watch as Matt Olson hit Chase De Jong’s full-count fastball 420 feet over the center-field wall for a solo homer to give the Braves a 5-3 lead in the bottom of the eighth.

Daniel Vogelbach led off the bottom of the ninth with a single to left that glanced off the glove of shortstop Dansby Swanson, bringing the tying run to the plate. Travis Swaggerty pinch-ran for Vogelbach, putting some speed on the base paths.

Braves closer Kenley Jansen, however, got Jack Suwinski to strike out swinging for the third time in the series, Michael Chavis to fly out to center and Cal Mitchell to fly out to left for his 18th save.

The Braves beat the Pirates by two runs in three of the four games, so Shelton stopped short of calling it a moral victory but believes it was an important learning experience for a team that started four rookies.

“I think for our young kids, it’s realizing that the big leagues is challenging and there’s good teams out there,” Shelton said, “and the Braves are one of them.”