ATLANTA BRAVES INCREASE LEAD IN NATIONAL LEAGUE EAST WITH WIN OVER MIAMI MARLINS IN DIVISION SERIES OPENER

The Atlanta Braves increased their lead in the NL East on Monday night with a win over the Miami Marlins by a final score of 12-2 in the opener of a three game division series at Loan Depot Park in Miami, Florida.

The Braves surged ahead of the Marlins with seven runs during the top of the fourth inning; it included a tie-breaking three-run homer by Freddie Freeman, his 26th home run of the ’21 season.

Adam Duvall contributed a two-run shot in that same inning against the team with whom he began this season. That was his 27th homer of the year and his fifth since he returned to Atlanta’s line up at the Trade Deadline.

Touki Toussaint got the win for Atlanta after surrendering two runs and three hits, walking two, and striking out seven in six and one-third innings of work. Braxton Garrett was tagged with the loss for Miami, whose offensive leaders were Jazz Chisholm with a solo home run during the first and Isan Diaz with another solo shot in the second.

The Braves improved to 63-56 on the ’21 season and now hold a game and a half lead in the NL East over the second place Philadelphia Phillies (who did not play on Monday). The Marlins are next to last in their division at 51-68. Those teams will meet again tonight at 7:10 pm. The game will be broadcast on WLAQ 1410 AM and 96.9 FM; air time is 5:55 pm.