Braves 9, Marlins 5
Ervin Santana snapped a three-start winless streak and Jason Heyward and Freddie Freeman drove in two runs each as visiting Atlanta topped Miami for the second consecutive game.
B.J. Upton, Tommy La Stella and Gerald Laird (three runs) added two hits each as the Braves moved two games ahead of the Marlins in the National League East. Santana (5-2) held Miami to three runs on seven hits with four strikeouts in six innings and Craig Kimbrel earned his 15th save of the season and 154th of his career, tying John Smoltz’s franchise mark.
Miami starter Jacob Turner (1-3) gave up five runs – four earned – on seven hits in five innings. Christian Yelich went 3-for-4, Derek Dietrich added two hits and two RBIs, and Casey McGehee drove in two runs.
Freeman doubled home two runs in the third and later scored on a Adeiny Hechavarria's throwing error as Atlanta built a 3-0 lead, and Heyward’s two-run single to center one inning later made it 5-0. Dietrich drove home Yelich with a fourth-inning single and again on a sixth-inning triple, and McGehee’s sacrifice fly later in the sixth pulled Miami within 5-3.
The Braves made it 6-3 in the seventh on La Stella’s first major-league RBI, a single to right plating Chris Johnson, before the Marlins got within 6-5 on RBI singles from McGehee and Marcell Ozuna in the eighth off David Carpenter. But Shae Simmons, making his major-league debut, struck out Jarrod Saltalamacchia on three pitches to end the frame with the tying run on base and Atlanta added three runs in the ninth.
GAME NOTEBOOK: La Stella, Atlanta’s fourth second baseman of the season who made his major-league debut Wednesday, is 4-for-12 in four games. … McGehee has 34 RBIs, third-most by a first-year Miami player through May 31. … Miami bench coach Rob Leary was ejected by home plate umpire Quinn Wolcott for arguing balls and strikes in the eighth.