By Walter Villa, The Sports Xchange
MIAMI — Adam Conley pitched eight scoreless innings and Justin Bour blasted a two-run homer as the Miami Marlins finally defeated the last-place Atlanta Braves at Marlins Park, prevailing 3-0 on Wednesday afternoon.
Miami (38-34) improved to 1-4 against the Braves this year at Marlins Park. Since this stadium opened in 2012, the Braves are 29-13 here.
Atlanta (24-47) has won six of eight games overall against Miami this season.
Conley (4-4) threw 114 pitches — two short of his season high. He held Atlanta to four hits, one hit-by-pitch, one wild pitch and one walk, striking out four. He allowed just one extra-base hit — a harmless two-out double by Erick Aybar in the fifth.
The biggest jam for Conley came in the first, when leadoff batter Jace Peterson hit an infield single and reached third base with one out. But Conley, who lowered his ERA to 3.56, struck out Freddie Freeman swinging and got Jeff Francoeur to ground out to end the threat.
Marlins closer A.J. Ramos worked the ninth to earn his 23rd save in 23 chances this season. Ramos allowed a pair of two-out singles as Atlanta put the tying runner at the plate. But Ramos got Chase d’Arnaud to line out to left to end the game.
John Gant (1-2) took the loss, allowing seven hits and three runs, with five strikeouts and no walks in 5 1/3 innings.
Miami’s three runs were all scored in the second inning. Marcell Ozuna lined a leadoff triple to left-center and scored on Bour’s home run to the upper deck in right field. It was Bour’s 12th homer of the season, and it came on an 0-1 pitch.
Jeff Mathis capped the rally with an RBI single to left. That scored Derek Dietrich, who had also singled.
Braves right-hander Tyrell Jenkins made his major league debut in the eighth, pitching a scoreless inning and allowing only one hit.
NOTES: Atlanta made two changes for Wednesday’s lineup, starting C Tyler Flowers instead of A.J. Pierzynski and LF Jeff Francoeur instead of Emilio Bonifacio. … Miami made three changes from its normal lineup, starting C Jeff Mathis instead of J.T. Realmuto, 3B Chris Johnson instead of Martin Prado and RF Ichiro Suzuki instead of Giancarlo Stanton. … Marlins pitchers have a 3.20 ERA with Mathis catching and a 4.22 ERA with Realmuto. … Of Miami’s two main set-up relievers, RHP Kyle Barraclough got holds on 16 of his first 17 tries (94.1 percent) and RHP David Phelps converted on 17 of 21 (81.0 percent). … Up next, the Marlins host the Chicago Cubs — who have the best record in baseball — for four games. The teams split their season series 3-3 last year. … Atlanta returns home to open a four-game series against the New York Mets. Atlanta swept the Mets in three games last week.