ATLANTA — Ronald Acuna Jr. became the youngest player in major league history to homer in five straight games, hitting a leadoff shot on the first pitch and adding a three-run long ball in the seventh inning to help the surging Atlanta Braves beat the Miami Marlins 10-6 on Tuesday night.

Freddie Freeman hit his 20th homer to tie it in the sixth, and Dansby Swanson had a tiebreaking RBI single in the seventh as the NL East-leading Braves won for the 13th time in 17 games. Atlanta is 16 games over .500 for the first time since winning the division five years ago.

The 20-year-old Acuna homered on Miami’s first pitch for the second straight night and became the first player to hit a leadoff homer in three consecutive games since Baltimore’s Brady Anderson went deep in four straight in 1996. On Monday, he became the fourth player in major league history to hit leadoff homers in both games of a doubleheader.

Acuna went deep to left-center in the first off Trevor Richards and homered to right-center, his 19th of the year, off left-hander Adam Conley to give the Braves a 10-6 lead in the seventh.

J.T. Realmuto drove in four runs for Miami.

Acuna, who went 3 for 5, has homered in seven of his last eight games and is hitting .358 with 12 homers, 25 runs and 24 RBI since moving to the top of the batting order, a stretch of 24 games beginning after the All-Star break.

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BREWERS 7, CUBS 0: Ryan Braun hit two of Milwaukee’s four homers, Jhoulys Chacin struck out 10 in seven innings and the Brewers cut into the Cubs’ NL Central lead with a win at Chicago.

Lorenzo Cain homered on Jose Quintana’s second pitch. Braun hit a two-run drive in the first and third. Erik Kratz added a solo homer in the sixth and an RBI double in the eighth.

Chacin (12-4) allowed three hits and walked two. The right-hander is 6-1 in his past eight outings.

The Brewers pulled within two games of the Cubs after dropping eight of 11 against them.

Manager Joe Maddon got ejected for the second time in four games when plate umpire Phil Cuzzi called Ben Zobrist out on strikes in the sixth. Zobrist was also tossed by Cuzzi as the Brewers were getting ready to bat in the ninth.

AMERICAN LEAGUE

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YANKEES 4, RAYS 1: J.A. Happ allowed one soft single in seven shutout innings to win his third consecutive start since joining the Yankees, who beat Tampa Bay at New York.

Austin Romine hit a two-run homer to help New York improve to 7-2 since getting swept in four games at Boston this month. Still, the wild card-leading Yankees remained 10 games behind the runaway Red Sox in the AL East despite having the second-best record in the majors at 75-44.

Aaron Hicks had an early RBI single and New York won for the 14th time in 17 home games against Tampa Bay over the past two seasons. Miguel Andujar and slumping Greg Bird contributed consecutive two-out doubles in the eighth to make it 4-1.

Happ (13-6) struck out four and walked four. The only hit he permitted was a flyball by C.J. Cron that fell in front of left fielder Brett Gardner in the fourth. Happ retired Carlos Gomez on a line drive to first base with two on to end the inning, and was never threatened after that.

WHITE SOX 6, TIGERS 3: Ryan LaMarre hit his first major league home run and Lucas Giolito escaped a bases-loaded, no-out jam as Chicago won at Detroit.

LaMarre, who played college baseball at Michigan, gave the White Sox a 4-3 lead in the second inning, and Giolito pitched out of trouble in the sixth inning with a 6-3 lead.

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INTERLEAGUE

INDIANS 8, REDS 1: Jose Ramirez hit his 36th home run and Corey Kluber extended his dominance of the Reds as Cleveland rolled to a win at Cincinnati.

The Indians have won the first two games of the three-game series by a combined 18-4.

Kluber (15-6) allowed one run and five hits and struck out seven in seven innings.

Cleveland sent nine batters to the plate in the first inning, scoring four runs on four hits, including a two-run single by Yonder Alonso.

ORIOLES 6, METS 3: Chris Davis, Adam Jones and Tim Beckham each homered to back a strong performance by starter Andrew Cashner, and Baltimore won at home to snap a five-game skid.


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