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| Teixeira, Braves avoid sweep against Brewers ATLANTA 8, MILWAUKEE 1 |
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By David Cotey PA SportsTicker Contributing Writer MILWAUKEE (Ticker) -- Mark Teixeira took advantage of batting behind the hottest hitter in baseball. Teixeira, slotted right after Chipper Jones, belted his sixth home run and drove in four runs as the Atlanta Braves avoided a three-game sweep with an 8-1 victory over the Milwaukee Brewers on Thursday at Miller Park. Jones singled twice to raise his batting average to .420 and walked a pair of times to boost his on-base percentage to .500 for the Braves, who snapped a three-game road losing streak. Teixeira hit a three-run home run as part of a five-run fifth inning. With one out, Kelly Johnson singled off Brewers starter Seth McClung (2-2) and was allowed to steal second without a throw and Jones at the plate. McClung then intentionally walked Jones before serving up Teixeira's blast on a 2-0 pitch. "The guy's hitting .420," Teixeira said of Jones. "I've never seen a guy locked in for two months to start the season. He's going to get walked. That's baseball." It was Teixeira's first home run in 19 days. "My power hasn't been there this year," Teixeira said. "I'm trying to work on that. I've got to start swinging at good pitches like that and drive the ball." Braves starting pitcher Jorge Campillo later added a two-run single in the fifth inning, his first hit in nine career at-bats. Campillo (2-0) was equally impressive on the mound. The rookie righthander struck out six batters and allowed only four hits in five innings. The lone run he gave up came on Russell Branyan's home run in the fifth. He left the game with a blister. "The hit felt good, but the way I pitched felt better," Campillo said through an interpreter. "If he can give us five like that every time, it's good enough," Braves manager Bobby Cox said. "He's an incredibly gifted pitcher. This guy knows what he's doing out there and he's got stuff." Four Braves relievers combined for four scoreless innings, including closer Rafael Soriano, who made his first appearance since April 6. Soriano worked around a one-out walk to retire the side in the ninth. Teixeira got the Braves on the board in the third inning with an RBI infield single that plated Yunel Escobar, Atlanta's first run scored in 19 1/3 innings. "Sometimes it takes a bloop hit or an error to get a team rolling," Teixeira said. "I think that kind of got us going a little bit and we swung the bats well the rest of the game." McClung, making his second start of the season, allowed six runs on eight hits and six walks in just 4 2/3 innings for the Brewers, who had a three-game winning streak snapped. "He struggled with his command, but he still kind of kept it in check until the fifth inning and found ways to make pitches when he needed to," Brewers manager Ned Yost said. A win would have pushed the Brewers (26-28) back to .500 for the first time since May 14 (20-20) and would have given Milwaukee it's first sweep of Atlanta since April 2006. "You want to sweep everyone, but winning series is important too," Brewers outfielder Corey Hart said. "Taking two of three is still a momentum-builder, regardless of if we won today or not." |
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