McCann's 5 RBIs lead Braves past Marlins

By DAVID O'BRIEN

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

They trailed 5-4 against the Florida Marlins after six innings, which would’ve seemed nearly insurmountable to last year’s Braves. But not this bunch.

After the Braves got a run in the seventh, Brian McCann’s two-run single in the eighth gave them a 7-5 win against the Marlins and another series victory Sunday afternoon at Turner Field.

“We’ve got a different team this year, for sure,” said McCann, who hit a three-run homer in the first inning and equaled his career high with five RBIs. “There’s no panic [after falling behind]. Our lineup is good enough to put up runs, and our bullpen is good enough to shut ’em down.”

Matt Diaz had four hits, and the Braves overcame another rough start by Derek Lowe (five innings, nine hits, five runs) for their ninth win in 12 games. They moved ahead of Florida into sole possession of second place in the National League East and third in the wild-card standings.

The Braves have won five of their past six series, and this was the fourth time in that stretch that they won a series after losing the opening game.

“We’ve got to keep winning every series,” Diaz said of the Braves, who are off Monday before opening a three-game series against San Diego at Turner Field on Tuesday. “We can’t take San Diego lightly. We’ve got to make sure we take care of business.”

The Braves are a season-high eight games over .500 (66-58), and stayed 6-1/2 games behind division leader Philadelphia and four behind wild-card leader Colorado. They put a game between them and the Marlins (65-59).

“When you come back to win games, walk-off wins, all those things build character,” third baseman Chipper Jones said. “If we get to 10 games over .500 by the end of this month, I like our chances to get where we want to go. If not the National League East title, then the wild card.”

Jones drew three walks and had an eighth-inning groundout to advance Omar Infante and Kelly Johnson to third and second. Both drew walks to start the inning, and both were driven in by McCann with his single to right that electrified a crowd of 30,478.

McCann has hit .333 with four homers and 11 RBIs in his past seven games, after batting .146 with no homers and four RBIs in his previous 12 games.

“He had an unbelievable game,” Diaz said. “They made it known they were going to pitch around Chipper, pretty much from the start of the series. And Mac made them pay today.”

In 2008, the Braves had a 13-76 record in games they were tied or trailed after six innings. This season, they have 18 wins in 21 fewer chances in those situations.

Diaz continued his career-long plundering of Marlins pitching, with a 4-for-4 performance — two singles, double, triple — to give him a .415 average and 19 extra-base hits in 130 at-bats against them.

He tripled in the seventh and scored the tying run on Reid Gorecki’s sacrifice fly.

Diaz has been on an eight-week tear, batting .349 in 43 games since June 30. His hot streak coincides with a resurgence by the Braves, whose 32-18 record since June 28 is the league’s second-best, behind Philadelphia’s 33-16.

Lowe has allowed 20 hits and 13 runs (11 earned) in 8-2/3 innings in his past two starts, including two unearned runs Sunday. He gave up a two-out, three-run double by Ronny Paulino in the fourth inning, turning a 3-2 Braves lead into a two-run deficit.

Second baseman Kelly Johnson dropped a throw from shortstop Yunel Escobar with two on and one out, which left the bases loaded. Instead of having runners on the corners with two out and being able to walk No. 8 hitter Paulino to get to pitcher Ricky Nolasco, Lowe had to pitch to him.

He got ahead in the count 0-2, but threw a fastball over the plate that Paulino crushed.

Fortunately for Lowe, these Braves are more resilient than the 2008 version.