Before Thursday night, Kris Medlen had won every home start this season when the Braves scored at least three runs while he was in the game, and also won six consecutive starts — home or road — when he got that much support.
Brian McCann got three for him with one swing in the third inning against Cleveland, a three-run homer that powered the Braves and Medlen to a 3-1 win for a three-game series sweep of the Indians at Turner Field.
Medlen (11-12) held the Indians to six hits and no walks with six strikeouts in seven scoreless innings, and the Braves trimmed their magic number to clinch the National League East division to 17, while improving their majors-best records to 81-52 overall and 47-18 at home.
Craig Kimbrel pitched a perfect ninth inning for his majors-leading 43rd save and 33rd in a row without a blown save.
“We’ve been getting pitching all season long,” said McCann, whose 19th homer came on a slider from Ubaldo Jimenez. “That’s the reason we’re in the position we’re in. We’ve got five guys going out every night and giving us quality starts. That’s all you need to do. You hand it over to our bullpen and let them do their thing, that’s been the recipe for success over the past couple of weeks.”
Any combination of Braves wins and Nationals losses totaling 17 will give the Braves their first division title since 2005. They’ve won four in a row and have six games left against the Marlins and Mets on a nine-game homestand, with Miami up next beginning Friday night.
“Medlen was terrific, he really was,” Braves manager Fredi Gonzalez said. “Three-run homer by McCann and we held on, played good defense and we pitched good. Kimbrel, I don’t think he gave up a baserunner in this series. That’s a good combination.”
The Braves’ 12 series sweeps this season include eight at Turner Field, this latest against a Cleveland team that was four games out in the American League wild-card race before Thursday and in second place in the AL Central, 5-1/2 games behind Detroit.
“It was huge,” Medlen said of the win and sweep. “I mean, they were pretty close games, so it’s not like we blew them out of the water. But B-Mac today capitalizes on a mistake pitch and we had to take advantage of that, I had to take advantage of that and keep putting zeroes up. The defense played great behind me.”
Justin Upton left the game after being hit in the back of his left hand by a 92-mph Jimenez fastball with two out in the fifth inning. X-rays were negative, and Upton was diagnosed with a bruise and listed as day-to-day.
Manager Fredi Gonzalez planned to rest Upton on Friday and possibly have him back in the lineup Saturday. He leads the Braves with 24 home runs, including eight in August.
Medlen is 6-6 with a 2.78 ERA at Turner Field, and the Braves scored no runs while he was in five of the losses and one run while he was in the other. He didn’t have to wait long for significant run support Thursday and won for the fifth time in his past seven starts.
Jimenez (9-9) threw a 1-1 slider that McCann deposited about 10-12 rows back in the right-field seats with two on and two outs in the third for a 3-0 lead.
“Any time you’re a pitcher who’s given a lead, you want to just go out and stay aggressive,” Medlen said. “Even when you make mistakes, more times than not guys are still going to get themselves out. As a starter or a reliever (with a lead) you just want to go in there and be aggressive and don’t let guys get on base for free, make them earn it.”
Before Thursday, Jimenez had a 2.27 ERA and two homers allowed in six starts since the All-Star break.
One more homer will give McCann his sixth consecutive 20-homer season and his seventh in eight full seasons in the majors. Since the beginning of the 2006 season, his first full year in the big leagues, the seven-time All-Star leads major league catchers in home runs (170), RBIs (631), two-out RBIs (265) and game-winning RBIs (79).
“For me it’s just big to get a win,” McCann said. “Medlen, I feel like he’s pitched great all season long. I don’t think he got run support early, and people were wanting to question him in our rotation. He’s got a 3.5 ERA. You look around the league and there’s teams that would love to have guys with a 3.5 ERA in their (rotation).
“We just didn’t score him many runs early. But he’s battled back and he’s looking like the guy of last year, where he’s going and putting up zeroes every inning.”
Jimenez, who pitched a no-hitter against the Braves in this ballpark for Colorado in 2010, was charged with seven hits and three runs in seven innings and had 10 strikeouts with no walks. Leadoff hitter Jordan Schafer struck out in all four plate appearances against Jimenez, making him 0-for-12 with 10 strikeouts lifetime against the right-hander.
The Indians never advanced a runner to third base against Medlen and didn’t have more than one reach base in any inning until the seventh, when he gave up a pair of singles within the first three batters. After Asdrubal Cabrera flied out to center for the second out, Mike Aviles lined out to Schafer in right to end the inning.
Lonnie Chisenhall ended the Braves’ shutout bid with a leadoff homer in the eighth against David Carpenter, the first pinch-hit homer of Chisenhall’s career.
Medlen, who improved to 5-2 in his past seven starts, faced only two batters over the minimum from the second through sixth innings. He gave up three singles in that span, including a leadoff hit in the second by Michael Brantley, who tried to stretch it to a double and was thrown out by Schafer.
“I think I’ve strung a few starts in a row together; I’m pretty confident,” Medlen said. “I had some loud outs early, but we made some adjustments. And even when I messed up a few fastballs I was trying to go in on later in the game, I think they were starting to sit on my off-speed so I was able to kind of utilize that even if I didn’t execute my fastball exactly the way I wanted to.”
The Braves are 39-13 with a 2.57 ERA in their past 52 home games, including 7-1 while allowing two or fewer runs six times in their past eight. The Braves also scored three runs or fewer in six of those past seven home wins, including all three games against the Indians.
They outscored the Indians 8-3 and won three consecutive wins scoring three runs or fewer for the first time this season.
