Escobar powers Braves to win over Arizona

PHOENIX — The Braves believed that getting Yunel Escobar back in the lineup would help awaken their moribund offense. But this exceeded their expectations.

Escobar hit a three-run homer and helped the Braves vent recent offensive frustrations during a 10-6 win against the Arizona Diamondbacks at Chase Field, which snapped a four-game losing streak .

On a rare night when Braves starter Jair Jurrjens (5-2) needed ample run support for a win, the Braves supplied more than enough with nine runs in the first three innings, including Escobar’s 452-foot homer in the five-run third.

“Just another 10-run night,” cracked manager Bobby Cox, whose Braves scored more in the first three innings Friday than they had in the entire four-game losing streak that began this seven-game trip. “Escobar made a big difference.”

Escobar had missed six games with a strained right hip flexor. If he hadn’t been ready to play by Friday or Saturday, Cox said the Braves probably would have needed to place the shortstop on the 15-day disabled list.

“It felt great,” Escobar said (through a translator) about his fifth home run, a towering drive to the second seating deck in left. “But I didn’t feel 100 percent. I thought I was going to have to come out of the game in the second or third inning because of the pain. It hurt when I moved side to side.”

When asked if he might still end up going on the DL, Escobar said, “I’m going to keep playing. I don’t know how to stop. The team needs me. We need everybody in there if we’re going to qualify [for the postseason].”

Jurrjens gave up eight hits and a season-high five runs in five innings, the first time that he allowed more than two runs since his second game of the season, nine starts ago. His ERA jumped by a half-run, from 2.07 to 2.59.

“Baseball’s so funny,” the right-hander said. “You ask for runs, and then when they give you a lot of runs, you give back a lot.”

The Braves have scored one or no runs four times while Jurrjens was in games, including three quality starts in which he got one no-decision and two losses.

“He deserved that win tonight,” Cox said. “He’s lost so many when he gave up nothing.”

Cox penciled Escobar in the lineup after watching him put on a power-hitting display at early batting practice. (Nearly the entire team showed up for a voluntary 2 p.m. early hitting session on a 100-degree day with the roof open at Bank One Ballpark.)

Escobar carried it over to the game, launching a homer off Jon Garland (4-4) that landed in the same vicinity of his tape-measure batting-practice blasts, a dining area in front of Friday’s Sports Grill in the upper deck.

The Braves roughed up Garland for nine hits and a season-high nine runs (eight earned) in 2-2/3 innings.

This after hitting .177 with seven runs in their four-game losing streak, which included a sweep at San Francisco and Thursday’s opening loss at Arizona.

“Escobar is a big part of our offense,” catcher Brian McCann said. “Getting him back today was a big spark.”

McCann was the last of the nine Braves in the opening lineup to get a hit Friday, joining the offensive parade with a fourth-inning leadoff single. Even Jurrjens had a big hit, a bases-loaded double in the second inning.

Jurrjens was credited with two RBI, and a third run scored on an error.

Garland fell to 1-3 with a 9.33 ERA in his past four starts. In two starts against the Braves, including one last season, he’s 0-2 with a 14.04 ERA, with 21 hits and 13 earned runs allowed in 8-1/3 innings.

The Braves led 10-1 before the Diamondbacks scored three runs in the fourth inning and one in the fifth. Jurrjens threw 88 pitches in five innings.

Casey Kotchman had two hits and scored two runs in the first three innings.

With the bases loaded and two outs in the third, Kelly Johnson hit a two-run single. Two pitches later, Escobar took Garland deep. Way deep.

It was the fifth home run for Escobar, tying Johnson and McCann for the team high. He also matched Kotchman for the team lead with 24 RBIs.

Jeff Francoeur also had two RBI on a pair of singles for the Braves, who have two games left on the seven-game trip.

They’ll send Javier Vazquez (4-4) to the mound against Arizona lefty Doug Davis on Saturday afternoon, when the Braves can assure themselves of at least a split of the four-game series.