The Braves earned a split of their four-game series with the Giants on Sunday night, winning their second-straight game behind seven dominant innings from Tim Hudson and a couple of deep home runs. With the Nationals losing earlier in the day, Atlanta now sits 4.5 games back in the NL East.
This game marked the end of a brutal 10-game stretch for the Braves. After playing three at home with the Dodgers, three in Washington against the Nats and four in San Francisco, the club finished 4-6. Not ideal, but hardly anything to hang your head about.
Martin Prado grounded out with the bases loaded in the first inning to bring home the first run of the game against Tim Lincecum. Brian McCann followed with a bloop single to increase the lead to 2-0.
Juan Francisco hit a 454-foot homer in the top of the fourth to make it 3-0. Paul Janish cleared the bases with a two-run triple in the sixth to give Hudson a comfortable five-run cushion.
The Giants scored their lone run on a sacrifice fly from Brandon Crawford in the seventh to score Buster Posey. San Francisco loaded the bases in the frame with just one out, but they were unable to scratch anything out more than the lone run.
Jason Heyward and Freddie Freeman hit back-to-back solo homers in the ninth. Cristhian Martinez closed out the bottom of the ninth to preserve the 7-1 victory.
The Braves will now head to San Diego to take on the Padres for three games. It'll be Paul Maholm against Casey Kelly, who will be making his MLB debut at Petco Park. First pitch is at 10:05 p.m. ET.
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