For a while this season, the Braves couldn't seem to win without Chipper Jones in the lineup. He recaptured a little of that sentiment Wednesday night, when they wouldn't have won without him.
Jones reasserted his presence in the lineup with a two-run home run, his first in nearly two months, and it proved the difference in a 6-4 win over Arizona.
Tommy Hanson didn't make it look quite as easy as Tim Hudson did Tuesday night, but he got the same result, leading the Braves to a second consecutive win over Arizona in the second game of a 10-game homestand.
Hanson threw six shutout innings before giving the Diamondbacks some pitches they could sink their teeth into and used a six-run cushion to hold them off when they did. Ryan Roberts hit a three-run home run with one out in the seventh on Hanson's last pitch of the night, but the Braves held on to win.
Dan Uggla and Andrelton Simmons teamed up for a dynamic double play in the eighth inning to rescue Eric O'Flaherty, and Craig Kimbrel struck out the side to nail it down with his 22nd save.
Jair Jurrjens returns to the mound Thursday night gunning for a sweep of the Diamondbacks in his second start since returning from Triple-A Gwinnett. The Braves have won five of six games this season overall against Arizona.
Jones continued some good work of his own in this series, following a three-hit night Tuesday with the two-run home run Wednesday. The homer was Jones' first since May 4 in Colorado and the first real pop he has shown at the plate since returning from the disabled list with a severely bruised ankle.
Jones had taken two balls deep to left field in the first two games of the series, but both were caught on the warning track. He gave the first-pitch offering from Trevor Cahill a ride to straight-away center field in the sixth for his sixth home run of the season.
That gave the Braves a 6-0 lead, which held up after the Diamondbacks rallied for four runs in the seventh, including a Chris Young pinch-hit solo home run off Jonny Venters.
Jason Heyward homered for the sixth time in his past 17 games (16 starts), showing no signs of cooling off and giving the Braves their second consecutive first-inning home run in the series.
Hanson was doing his best to heed manager Fredi Gonzalez's call to work deep into games in these final 13 games before the All-Star break with an economical first six innings. He induced seven ground-ball outs and had thrown only 90 pitches when he left the game.
The Braves have won each of Hanson's past five starts, while he's gone 4-0 with a 3.13 ERA, and he leads the Braves' staff with nine wins.
For a while Hanson made a solo home run by Heyward seem like all the support he would need. But he got three runs more in the fifth after Jones broke a rhythm of 11 consecutive batters retired by Trevor Cahill with a leadoff walk.
The Braves managed only one hit in that inning but scored three times, taking advantage of three walks — including one to the pitcher Hanson — and an errant throw by Cahill. Michael Bourn and Martin Prado each drove in runs on sacrifice flies.
Jones started it all by working back from an 0-2 count to draw the walk and later scored on Cahill's low throw to second base on a grounder to the mound by Simmons.
