Braves win on Jones' hit in 12th

ATLANTA - Chipper Jones' single in the 12th inning drove in Jordan Schafer to give the Atlanta Braves a 7-6 win over the weary Cincinnati Reds on Saturday night.

Brian McCann had four hits, including two homers. Freddie Freeman also homered for Atlanta.

It was the second extra-inning game in four days for the Reds, who lost 5-4 in 19 innings in Philadelphia on Wednesday night.

Carlos Fisher (0-2) walked Schafer to lead off the 12th. Fisher, working his second inning after throwing 5 2/3 innings in Wednesday's game, also walked Martin Prado.

The switch-hitting Jones, batting from the left side against the right-handed Fisher, pulled a pitch past second baseman Brandon Phillips into right field. The speedy Schafer easily beat Jay Bruce's throw to the plate.

The teams combined for 30 hits.

Scott Linebrink (1-1) pitched two scoreless innings to get the win. He gave up a hit and issued an intentional walk in the 12th before ending the inning on Drew Stubbs' double-play grounder.

Stubbs had three hits and drove in three runs, and Jonny Gomes had four hits for Cincinnati.

Cincinnati's Bronson Arroyo and Atlanta's Derek Lowe, teammates on the Boston Red Sox in 2003-04, had similarly poor starts.

Arroyo gave up nine hits - including third-inning homers by McCann and Freeman - and five runs. He has given up 18 runs in 12 2/3 innings in his last three starts. He was making his first start since an MRI showed a minor muscle strain in his back.

Lowe left the bases loaded in the first and third innings, retiring Bruce on infield grounders to end each Cincinnati threat. Lowe's luck ran out in the fourth, when the right-hander blew a 5-0 lead. Stubbs had a three-run double over the head of right fielder Eric Hinske, followed by a run-scoring double by Phillips. Joey Votto's single to center drove in Phillips to tie the game.

Lowe, who walked five for the second straight start, gave up seven hits and five runs in 3 1/3 innings.

Left-hander Jeremy Horst, called up from Triple-A Louisville earlier in the day, had to wait only a few hours for his major league debut. Horst retired the Braves in order in the fourth and had a run-scoring single in his first at-bat in the fifth. He had four strikeouts in 2 2/3 innings and gave up only one run, McCann's second homer.

Reds shortstop Edgar Renteria, running with his back to the infield, made an over-the-shoulder catch of a short fly hit by Alex Gonzalez in the sixth. Schafer had Atlanta's top defensive play in the seventh when he made a running basket catch at the wall in left-center field to rob pinch-hitter Fred Lewis.

The Reds wasted a scoring chance in the eighth when Scott Rolen's single to left field off Jonny Venters moved Votto to third base, but Rolen was thrown out at second base by left fielder Martin Prado.

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