Los Angeles, CA (Sports Network) - Martin Prado, Freddie Freeman, Eric Hinske and Dan Uggla each homered for the Braves, and Brandon Beachy earned his first major league win as Atlanta downed the Los Angeles Dodgers, 10-1. Beachy (1-1), in his fourth start this season after three spot starts last year, silenced LA over six scoreless innings, allowing just two hits and two walks while fanning seven.
"It feels pretty good. It took longer than I had hoped," Beachy said of getting his first win. "I went right at guys with my fastball and I was locating it." Atlanta snapped a two-game slide by blowing the game open with an eight-run ninth inning. Hiroki Kuroda (2-2) took the loss after yielding two runs on five hits and three walks in his 6 1/3-inning start for the Dodgers, who were trying to win three straight for the first time this season.
Prado broke a scoreless tie by barely clearing the wall in left-center leading off the sixth, and Freeman followed with a blast to open the seventh. The Braves left the bases loaded in the latter frame and nearly gave up the lead in the bottom half. Juan Uribe singled to open the inning off Scott Linebrink and moved to third on James Loney's base hit. Chipper Jones made a terrific diving stab on a ball hit down the line by Jerry Sands, and though Uribe scored on the play, Jones got the out at first. Jonny Venters came in from the bullpen and maintained the one-run lead.
The Braves beat up on the Dodgers' bullpen in the ninth. Hinske stepped in as a pinch-hitter following Nate McLouth's leadoff walk and found the first row of seats beyond the short fence in right field. Brian McCann chased Dodgers reliever Kenley Jansen with an RBI single later in the inning, and Uggla greeted Ramon Troncoso with a three-run homer to left. Alex Gonzalez kept the scoring going with a run-scoring base hit and scored on Hinske's single to center.
"[Kuroda] gave us a chance to win the ballgame, but in the ninth inning we couldn't stop the bleeding," Dodgers manager Don Mattingly said.
Game Notes
Andre Ethier went 1-for-4 to extend his hitting streak to 16 games...Atlanta's Derek Lowe will go against Jon Garland in the third meeting of this four-game set on Wednesday...Prado, McCann, Freeman, McClouth and Hinske each ended with two hits...Hinske's homer in the ninth was his sixth career pinch-hit blast.
For more news and information on the Dodgers, or on tonight's game, be sure to read the SB Nation blog True Blue LA.