Braves 10 Blue Jays 6
TORONTO — Nick Markakis and Freddie Freeman drove in six runs to lead the Braves as Atlanta defeated the Toronto Blue Jays 10-6 on Monday night at Rogers Centre.
Justin Smoak had a two-run homer in the ninth inning but it was too late for the Blue Jays (17-22), who had a season-high five-game win streak snapped.
Bartolo Colon (2-4) allowed three runs, two earned, on seven hits over five innings earning his first win since April 16 for the Braves (14-21), who have now won three of four.
Markakis got the Braves on the board in the first driving home Freeman and Matt Kemp with a two-out single of Mike Bolsinger. Then in the fifth, with Atlanta leading 4-2, Markakis drove home Kemp with a two-out single.
Two batters later, Atlanta knocked Bolsinger from the game on an RBI single from Adonis Garcia. Bolsinger (0-2) went 4 2/3 innings, allowing six runs, five earned, on eight hits while striking out three and walking two.
Freeman put the game out of reach with a three-run home run off reliever Leonel Campos in the sixth to give the Braves a 9-3 lead. Freeman’s 13th long ball of the season moves him into a three-way tie for first in the the National League’s home run race.
The Braves took an early 3-0 lead in the second when Garcia scored on a sac fly from Dansby Swanson.
Toronto got on the board in the bottom half of the second on Devon Travis’s RBI double.
Atlanta added to its lead in the fourth as Swanson’s one-out singles scored Garcia from second giving the Braves a 4-1 cushion.
The Blue Jays cut the Braves lead in half in the bottom half of the inning when catcher Mike Ohlman singled scoring Travis from second. The hit was the first of Ohlman’s big league career.
Trailing 6-2 in the fifth, Jose Bautista drove in Kevin Pillar with a one-out double off the wall in left.
Garcia’s RBI single in the sixth gave the Braves a 10-3 cushion.
Toronto added a fourth run in the seventh on an RBI single from Travis and Smoak added his two-run home run in the ninth, driving in Bautista.
Notes: Blue Jays pitchers combined to hit a franchise-high five batters in Monday’s loss. … Campos was recalled by the Blue Jays from triple-A Buffalo on Monday. In a corresponding move, Steve Pearce was placed on the 10-day disabled list with a right calf strain. … Blue Jays SS Troy Tulowitzki (right hamstring) went 1 for 3 with an RBI in a rehab game in Dunedin.