Mike Minor, Freddie Freeman Lead Atlanta to 10-2 Win Over Arizona

The Braves got a dominant pitching performance from Mike Minor and plenty of offense from Freddie Freeman in a 10-2 win over Arizona.

Atlanta got the scoring going in the top of the first against Diamondbacks starter Josh Collmenter. Martin Prado worked a one-out walk, then scored on Freddie Freeman's two-run, opposite field home run. That gave the Braves an early 2-0 lead.

Arizona got a run back in the bottom of the third off Mike Minor. Back-to-back singles from Gerardo Parra and Henry Blanco put runners on first and second. After a double steal moved the runners to second and third, Parra scored on a grounder to short from Collmenter.

The Diamondbacks came close to adding another run in the fourth, as they had runners on first and second for Aaron Hill. Hill singled, and Jason Kubel tried to score from second, but was gunned down at the plate by a perfect throw from Prado in left.

A Dan Uggla error allowed the D-Backs to tie things up in the fifth. Blanco hit a lazy pop fly to second, and it hit Uggla's glove, bouncing off and onto the ground. Blanco's hustle allowed him to get to second on the play. A sacrifice bunt from Collmenter moved him to third, and he then scored on a sacrifice fly from A.J. Pollock.

Atlanta took back the lead in the sixth inning, and chased Collmenter in the process. With the shift on, Brian McCann took a big swing and hit a little dribbler perfectly down the third base line for an infield single. Uggla blooped a single into shallow right, advancing McCann to third.

The rest after the jump.

That chased Collmenter, who was replaced by Wade Miley. Jason Heyward greeted Miley with a double to left, scoring McCann to make it 3-2. Juan Francisco followed with a broken bat single that found its way up the middle, scoring Uggla and Heyward to make it 5-2. Heyward had a nice hook slide at home to make sure he got in safely, which was pretty impressive.

Freeman added his second two-run homer of the game in the seventh inning, launching one into the pool area in right field to give the Braves a 7-2 lead.

Atlanta capped off the scoring in the eighth, as Prado notched a two-RBI double to make it 9-2. Freeman then added his fifth RBI of the game, a career high, to make it 10-2.

Minor left after the eighth, in what was a pretty dominant eight innings of work. He retired 12 batters in a row at one point, and had all of his pitches working. He's probably the best pitcher in the rotation right now, and is going to be tough to beat when he pitches like he did tonight. Those eight innings tonight were a career high for the left-hander.

Jonny Venters walked two, but didn't allow a run in the ninth to finish out the game.

WP:

Mike Minor, 8 IP, 5 H, 2 R, 1 ER, 9 K, 0 BB

LP:

Josh Collmenter, 5.1 IP, 6 H, 4 R, 4 ER, 1 BB, 4 K.