Braves 7, Reds 6 (12)
Veteran third baseman Chipper Jones lined a single to right field to drive in Jordan Schafer in the bottom of the 12th inning and send the Atlanta Braves to a 7-6 win over the visiting Cincinnati Reds on Saturday night at Turner Field.
Jones’ only hit of the game came off Carlos Fisher (0-2), who had walked Schafer and Martin Prado to open the inning.
Brian McCann had four hits, including a pair of solo home runs, and Scott Linebrink (1-1) worked the last two innings for the Braves.
Drew Stubbs had a three-run double and Jonny Gomes had four hits for the Reds.
Atlanta won the battle of the bullpens after both starters were chased early. Cincinnati’s Bronson Arroyo was clobbered for nine hits, two of them homers, and five runs in three innings.
Atlanta’s Derek Lowe couldn’t hold a 5-0 lead and was yanked after giving up five runs, seven hits and five walks in 3 1/3 innings. Cincinnati used seven pitchers and Atlanta six.
It appeared the Braves were on their way to a big night when they scored five times in the first three innings, the final two coming in the third on homers by McCann and Freddie Freeman.
But the Reds got all of them back in the fourth on a bases-clearing double by Stubbs, an RBI double by Brandon Phillips and an RBI single by Joey Votto.
The Reds grabbed the lead in the fifth on a single by reliever Jeremy Horst, who was making his major league debut. But McCann hit his second homer of the night, his sixth of the year, off Horst in the fifth to even the score.