Spencer Horwitz hit two home runs among his four hits, and José Berríos pitched six solid innings as the Toronto Blue Jays defeated the Atlanta Braves 9-5 on Saturday night, pushing the Braves out of the final NL wild-card spot.
With only 20 games remaining, the Braves dropped one game behind the Mets, who won 4-0 against Cincinnati.
“We’ve got 20 games left,” Braves manager Brian Snitker said. “All we’ve got to go is 1-0 right now as we go forward.”
Berríos (15-9) gave up one earned run and five hits, setting a career high for wins. He struck out five batters and walked one.
“Finally I got to 15 (wins),” Berríos said. “The only thing better than winning is winning again. As a team, when we win it’s fun. Every win I am going to celebrate, and it is a great accomplishment for me and for the team, too.”
Horwitz had his second career game with multiple home runs, hitting a solo shot in the second inning to start the scoring and adding another in the fourth to make it 2-0. He ended the game 4 for 5 with three RBIs.
Braves starter Spencer Schwellenbach (6-6) gave up six runs—three earned—and 10 hits over five innings. This ended a streak of 25 consecutive games in which Atlanta’s pitching staff had allowed three runs or fewer.
It was Schwellenbach’s worst performance in his last 11 starts. The right-hander had been allowing fewer than three earned runs per game since the beginning of July.
“It’s a grind,” Schwellenbach said. “I haven’t thrown this many innings in my life. But, I’m doing everything I can to recover and get in the training room and the weight room and do everything I can to come out and pitch each time. Every fifth day you have to go out and compete.”
After Horwitz’s second homer, Ernie Clement and Joey Loperfido both hit RBI doubles to extend Toronto’s lead to 4-0 in the fourth inning. Horwitz then added an RBI double and scored on Will Wagner’s grounder to make it 6-0 in the fifth.
