Glaus' walk-off homer gives surging Braves another home win

They have 13 wins in their final at-bat and a majors-best 33-14 record since April 29. The Braves are 30-0 in games in which they've scored five or more runs, the only unbeaten team in the majors in those situations.

“Every win is nice, but you’d like not to save it for the ninth inning," said Glaus, smiling after raising his RBI total for May and June to 45, the most in the majors in that time. "We’ve done pretty well here at home."

The first-place Braves have the best home winning percentage (.767) in the majors. They added a game to their leads over New York and Philadelphia in the National League East, now 1 1/2 ahead of the Mets and 4 1/2 ahead of the Phillies.

Glaus' homer came on a 1-2 fastball from right-hander Robinson Tejeda and set off a celebration on the field and in the seats, where 39,109 roared.

"Those really give you a lot of confidence, when you get walk-offs," Cox said. "We’ve had our share of them this year.”

The Braves have bounced back from a nine-game losing skid in April and have the best record in the NL (41-28).

They had the go-ahead run in scoring position with none out in the eighth after Martin Prado's leadoff double, his 100th hit this season.

Prado, the National League batting leader and major-league hits leader, reached 100 in the team's 69th game. Only Ralph Garr, who did it in the Braves' 62nd game in 1974, has reached 100 hits sooner in Braves history.

Jason Heyward followed with a groundout that moved Prado to third, but that's where he was stranded after Chipper Jones struck out looking and Brian McCann lined out to center.

McCann homered to lead off the fourth inning and extend the Braves' lead to 3-0. It gave Kris Medlen what appeared to be enough cushion, considering how well he and the bullpen have pitched lately.

But the Royals scraped together two runs in the fifth, after Medlen made the mistake of walking No. 7 hitter Mike Aviles to start the inning, and Yuniesky Betancourt followed with a grounder that got past shortstop Yunel Escobar.

Heyward's alertness allowed the Braves to push the lead back to two runs in the sixth. Heyward and Jones hit consecutive singles to start the inning before McCann struck out.

Glaus grounded to shortstop Betancourt to start a potential double play, but Jones' hard slide into second base broke it up. Heyward, sprinting from second, sensed an opportunity and raced around third. He scored on a head-first slide for a 4-2 lead.

“I’ve always said the kid’s got great instincts on the bases," Cox said. "He turned his head, saw the second baseman down and kept on trucking. Without that run, we probably lose the ball game.”

Heyward said, "Troy hit that ball really well, and Betancourt made a nice play on the backhand side. Then I was looking -- always rounding third or going to third with a double-play opportunity, you're looking to go home and look for them to mess it up, any opportunity to score. And it came about.

"[Jones' slide] was huge. A great hustle play on both sides."

Medlen allowed just three hits and two runs (one earned) through six innings, but ran into trouble in the seventh when Aviles singled and Betancourt hit a long double, putting two in scoring position with none out.

Manager Bobby Cox left Medlen in to face pitcher Zach Greinke, who grounded out on a nice play by Jones charging in from third base.

Medlen left to a boisterous ovation, but the lead was gone soon after he took a seat on the bench. Lefty Eric O'Flaherty replaced him and gave up one run on Podsednik's slow roller to the left side, then another on Kendall's single to center field just in front of diving Gregor Blanco.

Medlen was charged with four runs (three earned) and five hits in 6 1/3 innings. He got no decision and is 3-0 with a 3.67 ERA in eight starts filling in for Jair Jurrjens.