As the Braves sought their eighth straight win, they began a four game home series against the sub-par Pirates, with an extremely favorable pitching matchup to boot.
Each pitcher worked through some first inning traffic for scoreless first innings, although the Pirates had some favorable BABIP luck, while the Braves did not. Max worked a perfect second and the Braves struck first in the bottom of the frame, as a d’Arnaud leadoff walk came around to score courtesy of an Adam Duvall single, despite an Ozuna GIDP that erased an Ozzie Albies single. Max worked around some more bad BABIP luck in the third to keep the Pirates scoreless.