Simmons And Maybin Help Braves Beat Dodgers, 3-2
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Andrelton Simmons had two hits and scored the go-ahead run on Adam Liberatore's wild pitch in the eighth inning, Cameron Maybin homered to continue his hot month and the Atlanta Braves beat the Los Angeles Dodgers 3-2 on Wednesday night to avoid a three-game sweep.
With the game tied 1-1, Simmons led off the eighth with a single against Chris Hatcher (1-4) and, after making his way to third base, came home when Liberatore uncorked a wild pitch over the head of catcher A.J. Ellis with two outs.
Maybin had two hits to raise his average to .306 in May and Nick Markakis added an RBI double in the eighth for the Braves (23-23). Juan Uribe went 0 for 3 with two strikeouts in his Atlanta debut.
Jim Johnson (2-2) pitched a perfect eighth for the win and Jason Grilli pitched around an Alex Guerrero homer in the ninth for his 14th save.
Maybin's solo homer in the third opened the scoring, but Dodger starter Zack Greinke settled into a groove immediately after and came away with a no-decision.
Greinke retired 11 straight after Maybin's homer, six via strikeout, before giving way to Yimi Garcia in the top of the seventh. He finished with three hits and one run allowed, two walks and nine strikeouts.
Greinke also legged out an infield single and stole a base, the fourth steal in his 12-year career.
The Dodgers tied it in the fourth when Turner's grounder to the right side bounced off the glove of diving second baseman Jace Peterson in shallow right field, allowing Rollins to score from second.
That was all they'd manage off Braves lefty Alex Wood. He went seven innings, gave up seven hits, walked two and struck out six in a no-decision.
Liberatore entered with one out and runners on the corners in the eighth and, after inducing Maybin to fly out, let fly the wild pitch high that allowed Simmons to score the go-ahead run. Markakis followed with an RBI ground-rule double that fell just inside the chalk in the left-field corner that made it 3-1.
The Dodgers made things interesting in the ninth.
Guerrero launched a one-out homer over the right field fence off Grilli to cut it to 3-2 and pinch-hitter Andre Ethier followed with a broken bat single into left field. But Grilli got Ellis to ground into a forceout and pinch-hitter Alberto Callaspo, acquired by the Dodgers from the Braves just before the game in exchange for Uribe, to fly out to center end it.
TRAINERS ROOM
Dodgers: OF Scott Van Slyke is day-to-day with what manager Don Mattingly called a "tweaked back." He was not available for Wednesday's game.
Braves: 3B Chris Johnson (fractured left hand) was activated from the 15-day disabled list prior to the game. He'd been on the DL since May 1.
UP NEXT
Braves: RHP Shelby Miller (5-1, 1.80 ERA) kicks off a four-game series at San Francisco on Thursday. Miller's pitched two complete-game shutouts in his last four starts.
Dodgers: RHP Mike Bolsinger (3-0, 0.71) takes the mound in the opener of a three-game series at St. Louis on Friday. Bolsinger's thrown 19 consecutive scoreless innings over his last three starts.
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