The Braves had been waiting much longer than 17 innings and 5-1/2 hours for a win like Sunday's over the Astros. They'd been waiting all season.

That's why there were all the flushed faces, hugs and the sighs as Mark Teixiera celebrated with teammates around second base after his walk-off, bases-loaded single beat the Astros 7-6.

The 17-inning game was the longest regular-season game in Turner Field history. The 5:35 game time -- on top of nearly a two-hour rain delay -- made it the longest time of a Braves game since a 5:40 game on May 14, 1988, against St. Louis.

The Braves lost their home opener to Pittsburgh in a long extra-inning game like that and watched it balloon into a close-game epidemic. Sunday's win was only the Braves' second in nine extra-inning games this year and their fifth in 26 one-run games.

"It was a big sigh of relief," Teixeira said. "We have got to continue to win series if we're going to get back in this. This was a good start."

The Braves used seven pitchers, all their position players and nearly Monday night's starter to salvage a 2-1 series win over the Astros. With that, they helped redeem a 2-4 homestand, which started with a three-game sweep by the Phillies.

By the time the dust settled from 561 pitches, 32 hits, 16 walks and 29 strikeouts, the Braves were six games behind the Phillies, who lost in extra innings to the Mets.

"If we've got to work this hard to win one, man, I don't know if we'll have enough gas in the tank," said Chipper Jones, who reached base seven times on three hits and four walks, including a triple, a homer and one of the four hits in the 17th-inning rally. "I think we DL'd three guys today."

The Braves did -- Manny Acosta and Omar Infante, both of whom strained hamstrings running the bases, and reliever Jeff Bennett, who hurt his shoulder Saturday night.

It's just another flurry of roster activity for a team that's had plenty all season but got a rare on-field celebration despite it. And that's what Jones wanted to do -- celebrate, and not worry about whether the win would propel the Braves to something more.

"I'm so sick of answering that question," Jones said. "Let's just enjoy this and we'll hopefully talk about the start of a streak tomorrow."

With their bags packed for the West Coast, the Braves rallied from a 5-1 deficit -- which Houston dug them on a Ty Wigginton grand slam off Charlie Morton -- to force extra innings. Yunel Escobar tied it 6-6 on a two-out, two-strike, two-run single. Then, they played the Astros for a game's worth more.

The Braves bullpen pitched 11 scoreless innings, including three innings apiece from Buddy Carlyle and Acosta.

The Astros threatened on Carlyle in the 13th when Miguel Tejada doubled and took third on a wild pitch. But Brian McCann held on to a third-strike foul tip from Brad Ausmus that bounced off his chest protector.

"[Carlyle] is the star of the game, I would think," said manager Bobby Cox, after watching most of the game on TV following his fifth-inning ejection. "Buddy has been terrific. His legs were probably jelly out there the last inning. He pitched two innings the night before."

Acosta squirmed out of a 15th-inning, runners-first- and-second jam after Escobar made a Walt Weiss-circa-1999-like diving stab with the infield in for the second out. That's when it started to look like the Braves would win.

Their offense finally broke through with four consecutive singles off Tim Byrdak in the 17th from the top four hitters in their lineup. With the bases loaded and nobody out, the infield was in for Teixeira. All he needed was a ball into the outfield, and he got one off the left field wall.

"When Gregor [Blanco] and Escobar get it going, we score runs," Jones said. "They got it going there in the last inning and we pushed it across finally."