HOUSTON – After failing twice with runners in scoring position during regulation, Brian McCann made things right in the 10th inning.
His three-run homer in the top of the 10th lifted Atlanta to a 6-3 win Saturday night against the Houston Astros at Minute Maid Park, the fifth in a row for the injury-riddled but resurgent Braves.
"Every time I came up tonight I had a chance to do something, and didn’t," McCann said. "It was very satisfying getting it in extra innings and giving us the lead.”
He homered off Brandon Lyon with none out. Jordan Schafer hit a leadoff single and stole second and Dan Uggla walked, then McCann hit a three-run tie-breaker that gave him 501 career RBIs in fewer than six full seasons.
“In the [seventh] inning he rolled over one, the double-play ball,"Braves manager Fredi Gonzalez said. "Then he came back and got us a ‘W.’ Big at-bat for a guy who took a ball in his shoulder in the second inning. It was getting worse as the game wore on. It was a hell of an at-bat.
“He is what he is – he’s an All-Star catcher who comes up big.”
Eric Hinske hit his second homer in as many nights, Uggla had his first mult-hit game in more than a month, and the Braves improved to 6-2 on a 10-game trip that ends Monday.
The Braves have played extra innings in 14 games this season, including 10 of the past 28. They've won seven of their last nine extra-innings games.
“I think this team has probably taken about 10 years off my life already," third baseman Chipper Jones said with a sigh, then smiled. "But we’re doing pretty well in the late innings in close situations. They build character, and the more and more we do it, the more confidence we have.”
Jones had two defensive gems and two doubles, and scored the Braves' last run on Hinske's two-out single that capped a four-run 10th. But there was no question who had the biggest hit.
It was the guy with the grapefruit-sized welt on his right shin and ugly bruise on his right shoulder. That damage to McCann's body occurred during Saturday's game.
“I always have confidence Mac’s going to come through," Jones said. "He’s a clutch player. I was more shocked that he didn’t come through in the seventh. But you can’t give him too many opportunities with the game on the line. He’s going to get you eventually.”
McCann took Lyon deep on a 2-and-1 slider. He has five homers and 14 RBIs in his past nine games against Houston, and the Braves have won 10 of their past 11 against the Astros.
After scoring only 11 runs in five games before they came to Houston, the Braves have piled up 17 runs, 28 hits and six homers in the past two nights.
The Braves have hit 12 homers in their past six games at Minute Maid Park, including four in Friday’s 11-4 win.
Braves rookie Mike Minor recovered from a rough first inning for his second consecutive quality start, allowing four hits and two runs in six innings, with two walks with four strikeouts. Both runs came in the first, as did all but one of the hits.
Reliever Scott Linebrink (2-1) worked around a walk and a hit in a scoreless ninth inning for the win, and Jonny Venters worked the eighth to lower his majors-leading ERA to 0.45 and extend his scoreless streak to 21 innings.
Minor got no decision and remained winless (0-4) in his past nine major league starts, including 0-2 in four this season. He began his career by going 3-0 with a 3.91 ERA in four starts, and hasn’t won since.
Uggla had two hits and two walks after entering the game lugging a .170 average and .234 on-base percentage -- the worst in the majors in both categories among hitters with enough plate appearances to qualify. He had been 7-for-74 in his past 22 games.
I felt real good up there tonight," Uggla said. "I’ve been doing some different things the last couple of days. It’s helped out. I feel closer to my old self.”
Uggla hadn’t collected more than one hit in a game since May 4 against Milwaukee, when he went 3-for-4 with a double and a walk. He had posted a .117 average in 32 games since then.
“He looks like he’s a little more comfortable," Jones said. "We came out and hit early today, and he looks to be making some strides. We start getting him going, it could be a fun summer.”
The Braves wasted prime scoring opportunities in the first and second innings. They started the game with consecutive singles by Jordan Schafer and Uggla, but McCann popped out and Jones grounded into a double play to end the inning.
In the second, the Braves again started with consecutive hits, including a leadoff double by Freddie Freeman. Alex Gonzalez followed with a single to put runners on the corners.
Hinske struck out, and Freeman made a base-running blunder when he was caught in a rundown between third and home on Matt Young’s grounder to first. Minor struck out to end the inning, and the Braves still trailed 2-0.
Minor had an alarming stretch of pitching in the first inning, when the Astros produced a barrage of three consecutive extra-base hits with one out. There was a triple by Michael Bourn, a double by Hunter Pence and a double by Carlos Lee, all to left field to keep Hinske on the run.
Then, with meltdown in the air, Minor recovered. The left-hander got the next two batters on a groundout and inning-ending strikeout.
“The first inning was pretty bad," Minor said. "They just pulled the ball – triple and double-double. After that, I kind of settled down... I just tried to locate down and mix in some off-speed. Because at the beginning of the game I was trying to get my fastball over and they were just killing it.”
After those three first-inning hits, Minor retired 17 of the last 20 batters he faced, allowing only a two-out walk in the second inning, a leadoff single in the fourth and a two-out walk in the fifth.
"If you had told me before the game that he’s going to give you six innings, two runs, give you a chance to win the ballgame, you’d take it," Fredi Gonzalez said. "And that’s what he did. Again, I think he got better as the game went on. We’ve just got to get him through that first couple of innings.”
Minor got some help from his defense, with the usual splendid plays by Gonzalez at short and two outstanding stabs by Jones.
Jones, who blew out his left knee making a jump-and-throw play at Minute Maid Park on Aug. 10, leaped to his right to catch a line drive by Pence with a runner on first and two out in the fifth inning. Coincidentally, it was Pence who hit the grounder that Jones fielded on that fateful play in August that ended his season.
An inning later, Jones dove to his left to spear a Jeff Keppinger line drive for the second out in the sixth.
