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A16 SPORTS
Thursday 29 June 2023

Olson homers, Braves win 5th straight with a 3-game sweep of Twins

By GEORGE HENRY dan Balazovic in the eighth
AP Sports Writer and made it 3-0.
ATLANTA (AP) — Matt Ol- “Just trying to continuous-
son homered late and ly progress as the season
doubled in an early run goes on,” Olson said. “I feel
and the Atlanta Braves like I’m working in the right
won their fifth straight direction.”
game, beating the Minne- The Braves took a 1-0 lead
sota Twins 3-0 Wednesday in the first when Ronald
for a series sweep. Acuña Jr. walked, stole
Atlanta has won 21 of 25 second base, advanced
to improve to a National on a wild pitch and scored
League-leading 53-27. Kol- on Olson’s double. Atlanta
by Allard, Kirby Yates, A.J. leads the majors with 76
Minter, Joe Jiménez and first-inning runs.
Raisel Iglesias combined Atlanta went up 2-0 in the
on the four-hitter with 14 third on Ozzie Albies’ sacri-
strikeouts. fice fly.
“It was a really good job by The Twins couldn’t capi-
everybody,” manager Bri- talize on their scoring op-
an Snitker said. “Any time portunities and finished 0
you throw a shutout it’s a for 8 with runners in scoring
team effort.” Atlanta Braves’ Michael Harris II (23) slides into second base against Minnesota Twins first baseman position and 0 for 23 in the
Donovan Solano (39) in the fifth inning of a baseball game, Wednesday, June 28, 2023, in Atlanta.
Olson’s 26th homer, which Associated Press three-game series.
leads the NL, came off Jor- Byron Buxton snapped a
0-for-17 streak with a dou-
ble in the fourth but after
advancing on a flyout he
was tagged out at home
trying to score on Kyle
Farmer’s grounder to third.
Donovan Solano struck out
against Yates (3-0) with
runners on first and second
to end the fifth. Christian
Vazquez lined into a dou-
ble play to end the sev-
enth.
The Twins closed their club-
house after the game,
and only manager Rocco
Baldelli was made avail-
able to speak with report-
ers.
“Yeah, we’re scrapping just
to score a run right now,”
Baldelli said. “We’re going
to have to win some close
ballgames like that, but
you can’t win every game
clawing for a run, two runs.
It feels like we’ve been like
that for a long time.
“I’m hoping that getting
this out, and the players
are in there talking right
now in the clubhouse, I’m
hoping that me getting this
out, them getting it out as
a group and feeling this
together as a team is what
is going to help lead us to
where we need to be.”
Allard made a spot start
in his season debut, last
pitching in the majors on
Oct. 2, 2022, with Texas. A
first-round amateur draft
pick by Atlanta in 2015, Al-
lard was reacquired in No-
vember. q