Albies stays hot as Braves complete sweep of Pirates

Atlanta second baseman Ozzie Albies continued his torrid stretch with two hits and two RBIs in a 6-5 win over the Pittsburgh Pirates on Thursday, giving the Braves a four-game series sweep and extending their winning streak to seven. Albies had a double among his two hits and is batting .338 (23-for-68) in his last 19 games. He was 7-for-16 with three homers in the four-game series with Pittsburgh. Albies has at least one extra-base hit in each of the last five games.

Freddie Freeman added two hits and two RBIs to bolster the 10-hit attack and help the Braves to their first four-game sweep of the Pirates since 1991. The offence supported starting pitcher Julio Teheran (5-4). The right-hander went six innings and allowed two runs (one earned) on three hits and three walks. He struck out two. Teheran lowered his ERA to 2.92 and has a 0.81 ERA over his last eight starts.

Luke Jackson, who blew a save on Wednesday, allowed a run in the ninth but was able to earn his 10th save. Jackson retired Josh Bell on a shallow fly ball to end the game. Pittsburgh starter Joe Musgrove (4-7) lasted only four innings and allowed six runs on nine hits and two walks. Musgrove started the first game of the series but was ejected in the first inning following an incident when Josh Donaldson was hit by a pitch.

Each team scored a run in the third inning. Pittsburgh's Bryan Reynolds singled home a run in the top half and Freeman answered with an RBI single in the bottom half. Pittsburgh took the lead in the fourth when Elias Diaz doubled past the diving effort of centre fielder Ronald Acuna Jr. to score Colin Moran.

The Braves took the lead for good by scoring five times in the fifth. Freeman tripled home a run and scored on Donaldson's single. Following a single by Nick Markakis, Albies stroked a two-run double to right and later scored on a Matt Joyce ground out. Pittsburgh narrowed the lead to 6-4 by scoring twice in the seventh on run-scoring doubles from Corey Dickerson and Reynolds.

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