Hudson Masterful, Braves Earn Series Split With Big Win Over Giants

Tim Hudson dominated the Giants, earning his 13th win of the season with a seven-inning effort in Atlanta's 7-1 win in San Francisco.

Atlanta's offense gave Hudson a two-run lead right away against Tim Lincecum. Michael Bourn and Freddie Freeman drew walks around a Jason Heyward single in the first, then Bourn scored on a ground ball that the Giants defense could not turn for a double play. Brian McCann followed that with a run-scoring single to center.

With one out in the third inning, Juan Francisco, starting in place of Chipper Jones, crushed a 454-ft. home run to center off Lincecum, giving the Braves a 3-0 lead. The home run was Francisco's ninth of the year and was the last run Lincecum allowed in five innings.

In the sixth, Jose Mijares issued a walk to Prado and gave up McCann's second hit of the game. One out later, George Kontos entered the game and Paul Janish greeted him with a two-run triple, upping the lead to 5-0.

The five runs was enough for Hudson, who induced 11 groundouts through six innings and had allowed only three singles. He only encountered trouble in the seventh when he surrendered singles to Buster Posey and Hunter Pence, followed by a one-out walk to Gregor Blanco to load the bases. Fortunately, Hudson escaped the inning allowing just a single run on a sacrifice fly by Brandon Crawford.

For good measure, Heyward and Freddie Freeman belted solo homers on consecutive pitches in the ninth off Clay Hensley.

Chipper Jones grounded out as a pinch-hitter in the eighth inning. Jonny Venters and Cristhian Martinez finished the final two innings for the win.