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Major League Baseball
Colorado 3, Atlanta 0
When: 1:35 PM ET, Sunday, August 27, 2017
Where: SunTrust Park, Cumberland, Georgia
Temperature: 78°
Umpires: Home - Ted Barrett, 1B - Angel Hernandez, 2B - John Tumpane, 3B - Sean Barber
Attendance: 28154

ATLANTA -- If the Colorado Rockies want to remain in the hunt for the National League playoffs, they'll need more efforts like the one Jon Gray gave them Sunday.

The right-hander continued his mastery of Atlanta Braves, working six scoreless innings in Colorado's 3-0 win at SunTrust Park that allowed the Rockies to hold their position as the second wild-card team.

"It was a really important game," Gray said. "I'm glad we took care of business."

Gray (6-3) allowed five hits and two walks and struck out seven, one short of his season high, as he ended a three-game losing streak on the road. He improved to 3-0 against the Braves and has a 1.04 career ERA in four starts against Atlanta.

"Jon had a good game," Colorado manager Bud Black said. "I thought he stayed under control. I thought the slider was effective and he had a great fastball. He was turning it loose.

"At times, it was good old country Oklahoma hardball and I like that from our guys. Our guys can do that in the rotation."

Gray continues to resemble the player who pitched the season opener. In the last six games, he's 3-1 with a 2.58 ERA. It was his longest scoreless start of the season.

Colorado won two of the three games in the series and took the season series 4-3. It was the seventh shutout of the season for Colorado and the eighth time Atlanta has been shut out.

"He's good," Atlanta manager Brian Snitker said. "He's hard to get ahold of. It's a rough at-bat against him."

Atlanta never had a player reach third base against Gray. He was helped by catcher Tony Wolters, who threw out two base stealers, and worked out of his only serious trouble spot in the sixth by inducing fly balls from Nick Markakis and Kurt Suzuki with runners on first and second.

"His main focus for this game was just to execute," Wolters said. "When he doesn't try too hard, he can paint the balls where he wants to throw them. I think he did a great job slowing the game down, mixing up his times ... of just executing his pitches and staying in the moment pitch by pitch."

The Colorado offense came from Trevor Story, who doubled in a run in the third inning, and Mark Reynolds, who hit a two-run homer, his 28th home run of the season, in the sixth. The homer provided the 800th and 801st RBIs in Reynolds' career.

The Rockies got one inning of scoreless relief from Pat Neshek, Mike Dunn and Jake McGee, who worked the ninth for his third save of the year and second in as many days.

Atlanta starter Mike Foltynewicz (10-10) made it through five innings and got stronger as the game progressed, retiring the final seven batters he faced. He allowed one run, four hits and three walks, striking out six. The right-hander got the last two outs in the second and third innings to end Colorado rallies.

"I think I was more around where I wanted my pitches to be rather than my last outing," said Foltynewicz, who had allowed 20 runs in his previous three starts. "It felt good. All of my pitches were in the zone where I wanted them to be.

"Sixty pitches in the first two innings isn't very good, so we'll try to get the put-out pitches better with two strikes, instead of starting 0-2 and getting to 3-2, but we'll get there."

Snitker said, "He left with one run on the board. Command wasn't real good, fought through it and never gave in, kept his wits about him."

NOTES: Atlanta 3B Brandon Phillips singled in the fourth inning to extend his hitting streak to 12 games. Rookie 2B Ozzie Albies extended his hitting streak to eight games. ... Atlanta LF Matt Adams, who had a pinch-hit homer on Saturday, got his first start since Aug. 20 as the Braves gave Matt Kemp the day off. ... Colorado manager Bud Black made RHP Greg Holland unavailable, a day after he blew a save. Black said it wasn't a demotion, but he wanted to see Holland work on his slider before putting him back in a game situation. ... Colorado LF Gerardo Parra extended his hitting streak to eight games with a single in the second inning. ... The Rockies return to Coors Field to begin a three-game series with Detroit. RHP Antonio Senzatela (10-4, 4.52) will open the series against Detroit RHP Jordan Zimmerman (7-11, 6.11). ... The Braves open a three-game series in Philadelphia on Monday. RHP Lucas Sims (2-3, 4.13) will start against Philadelphia ace Aaron Nola (9-9, 3.58).
Top Game Performances
Starting Pitchers
Colorado   Atlanta
Jon Gray Player Mike Foltynewicz
Win W/L Loss
6.0 IP 5.0
7 Strikeouts 6
5 Hits 4
0.00 ERA 1.80
Hitting
Colorado   Atlanta
Charlie Blackmon Player Brandon Phillips
2 Hits 2
0 RBI 0
0 HR 0
2 TB 2
.667 Avg .500
Team Stats Summary
 
Team Hits HR TB Avg LOB K RBI BB SB Errors
Colorado 8 1 13 .235 22 9 3 5 1 0
Atlanta 6 0 6 .200 16 7 0 3 0 2