After scrambling to plug holes in their injury-riddled lineup Saturday, the Braves fell behind 2-0 after the second inning against the Reds and Homer Bailey.
Then they got to work.
Mike Minor got into a pitching groove, Brian McCann and Dan Uggla provided power, and a makeshift Braves outfield trio combined for seven hits in a 5-2 win against Cincinnati at Turner Field.
“You just never know,” said manager Fredi Gonzalez, whose Braves pulled off their 29th come-from-behind win, the most in the National League. “I think Vegas lost a lot of money today if they saw our lineup and the guys we ran out there. But you can’t judge and handicap heart and putting the ball in play.”
Minor (9-4) snapped his five-start winless streak with seven strong innings and also had the game-winning RBI with his two-run double in the fifth inning. He retired 15 of the last 16 batters he faced and allowed six hits, two runs and one walk with seven strikeouts.
Jose Constanza, recalled from Triple-A Gwinnett after the Braves lost outfielders B.J. Upton and Justin Upton to injuries Friday night, played left field and had three hits from the leadoff spot, including a bunt and an RBI single.
Recent rookie call-up Joey Terdoslavich, in his first major league start, had two hits, including a double, while filling in for injured right fielder Jason Heyward. And veteran backup Reed Johnson played center field and had two hits.
The seven hits were a season-high from Braves outfielders.
“That’s what we’re going to need while our outfield is healing up,” said McCann, whose solo homer in the fourth inning off Bailey (5-8) cut the Reds’ early lead in half. “We’re going to need guys to step up, get big hits. Reed made an unbelievable play on Jay Bruce in the eighth there, and that was the game.”
With two outs and two on in the eighth, Johnson made a leaping catch at the wall to rob Bruce of a potential extra-base hit and protect the 5-2 lead. Craig Kimbrel struck out the side in the ninth for his 26th save.
With some wondering if the Braves could hold it together through the weekend and get to the All-Star break without losing any more of their division lead, they went out and beat a pitcher who has the majors’ past two no-hitters, including one against San Francisco on July 2.
“That just shows you how deep we are,” said Uggla, whose two-out homer in the seventh off Alfredo Simon was his team-high 17th, 13 of which have come against right-handers. “Everybody has seen what Constanza can do. Everybody knows what a pro Reed is. People are going to find out real quick how good a hitter Terdoslavich is.”
The Braves took the lead with a two-run fifth inning that started with Johnson’s leadoff single and Terdoslavich’s double. Minor drove both of them in when the pitcher pulled a hard ground ball down the third-base line.
“You’re going to have to go through some spurts without your big boys, and we were able to step up and do a pretty good job today,” Johnson said. “At the same time, we realize we need those guys back for the long haul.”
After working out of a one-out, bases-loaded jam in the first inning, Minor gave up two runs on three hits in the second, including Zack Cozart’s triple — which center fielder Johnson said he misread — and Chris Heisey’s double off the top of the left-field wall.
But after Shin-Soo Choo’s two-out single in the second, Minor retired the next 10 batters.
“I felt good the whole time,” he said. “I felt like I was making quality pitches, they were just hitting them. So I really wasn’t pressing or trying to do anything different.”
