Braves erase 6-0 deficit with eight unanswered to beat Rockies

Harris took a 1-2 sweeper from Rockies reliever Juan Mejia (0-3) and tomahawked it 385 feet into the stands in right field. It scored Kyle Farmer, who was pinch-running for Jonah Heim, who had drawn a lead-off walk.

Said Braves’ manager Walt Weiss of Harris: “He’s a silver bullet over there. Hopefully, there’s a spot in the game where he can impact the game and that showed up tonight.”

The Braves (23-10) improved to 9-2 in series openers. It was their largest comeback since Aug. 19 when they trailed the White Sox 10-4 after six innings and won 11-10.

“I wouldn’t say unbelievable because we believe in each other, and we knew this, even in spring and coming into the first game of the season, what we had and the group of guys we have and the coaches, everybody on staff believes in each other,” Harris said.

The comeback started in the eighth when Zach Agnos walked two before being pulled for Jaden Hill. Hill walked Matt Olson to load the bases.

Mauricio Dubón then drove a 97-mph fastball the other way into the right field corner for a bases-clearing triple. Austin Riley, in the midst of a hellish slump but already with two singles on the night, lifted a sacrifice fly to right to score Dubón and tie the game at 6-all.

“People bashing (Riley) but (freaking) had a great (freaking) at-bat right there, man,” Dubón said. “Runner on third, less than two (outs), brought the tying run in. He’s been grinding out here, coming in and working every day. It’s pretty awesome watching him have a game like this.”

Didier Fuentes (1-0) got a double-play ball and pop-up in the eighth to keep the score at 6-6. Harris provided the game-winner, his second of the season, minutes later.

“I knew the inning before, if that spot came up I probably would have came up (to pinch-hit),” Harris said. “I just stayed ready for when the inning came around and they told me I was coming in. I went up there and tried to do what I could do.”

Robert Suarez earned his fourth save of the season by working around a one-out single in the ninth.

Earlier, much earlier, on Friday, Braves starter Grant Holmes was touched up for six runs (five earned) before an out was recorded in the second inning. It was one of the worst starts of his career, yet it was a distant memory when all was said and done.

A walk, single, double, single, safety squeeze bunt and single put the Rockies up 3-0 in the first. When Willi Castro was out at first on a chopper he hit to Olson at first, Olson went home to try to complete a double play, but the ball sailed to the backstop instead. That made it a 5-0 game.

Edouard Julien, in his second at-bat of the inning, struck out to mercifully end the frame for Holmes, who had to throw 38 pitches.

“In that first inning, they say hitting is contagious. I guess I got the cold pretty quick. I couldn’t get rid of it,” Holmes said.

Mickey Moniak began the second inning with a 439-foot homer to right, making it 6-0.

Holmes then looked like a different pitcher after the Moniak deep shot. He retired 12 of the next 14 hitters he faced, not allowing a lead-off double in the third or one-out walk in the fifth deter him from powering through five innings of work.

The six runs allowed by Holmes matched a career-high from an April 26, 2025, outing at Arizona. It was the fourth time in his career he had allowed at least five earned runs (and the Braves have won three of those games, oddly enough), with one of those previous instances being at Coors Field.

“It got kind of got out of hand a lot quicker than I was expecting. I was literally trying everything out there to get somewhat of an out. Just wasn’t happening” Holmes said. “I finally just gave in and said, ‘Well, I’m just gonna attack ‘em and hopefully they get themselves out.”

Olson made up for his first-inning error by crushing a solo home run to right. It was Olson’s 10th homer of the season.

That was all the damage the Braves could do against Rockies starter Jose Quintana. Quintana went six strong and gave up just one run on five hits without a walk. The veteran lefty got nine outs in the air, threw 55 strikes out of his 85 pitches and worked ahead on 16 of the 23 batters he faced.

The only thing wrong with Quintana’s start is that it ended.

The Braves plated an unearned run in the seventh against Agnos. Heim’s grounder to second with one out scored Riley from third to get within four, a run that proved crucial in the larger scheme of it all.

Anthony Molina, a 24-year-old Venezuelan, made his Braves debut in the sixth by pitching against his old club. He faced the minimum in that frame and also recorded a 1-2-3 seventh.

Holmes, Molina, Fuentes and Suarez combined for six scoreless innings from the third inning on in Friday’s win.

“You got to keep playing here, man,” said Weiss, who previously managed, coached and played with the Rockies. “I’ve seen that movie many times in this place. I know how quickly it can turn, and that’s why you stay in it and you hope you get a chance late like tonight.”