Braves Fall To San Diego 8-2 In Series Finale

For the second time in just over two weeks, Padres left-hander Eric Stults stymied the Braves' bats en route to a San Diego victory.

This time, defensive miscues Atlanta helped the Padres cruise to an 8-2 series clinching win on Wednesday night.

Stults scattered five hits and one run over six innings while walking none and striking out five. He pounded the strike zone all afternoon, throwing 61 of his 90 pitches for strikes. Stults also had 12 swing and misses, including five on his changeup.

Things held scoreless until the fourth inning, when San Diego finally got to struggling Braves starter Tommy Hanson. Hanson walked Yasmani Grandal to start the frame, then allowed a single to Mark Kotsay two batters later that advanced Grandal to third.

With runners on first and third, Logan Forsythe doubled to left, scoring Grandal to make it a 1-0 game. Cameron Maybin followed with a groundout to third that plated Kotsay, upping San Diego's advantage to 2-0.

Dan Uggla singled to start the top of the fifth, and advanced to third thanks to an errant force attempt. Michael Bourn brought in Uggla with a sacrifice fly.

Unfortunately, The #Barves made an appearance in the fifth inning. A pop up to third base by Everth Cabrera hit the ground as Chipper Jones and Janish bumped into each other trying to make the catch. Will Venable followed with a bunt that Hanson tried and failed to barehand.

Venable stole second, and Chase Headley followed with a single to right field. Jason Heyward's throw home appeared to be on line, but it was cut off for some reason. That allowed both Cabrera and Venable to score and make it 4-1.

Hanson left two batters later, finishing with a line of 4.2 IP, 8 H, 4 R, 3 ER, 2 BB, 3 K.

San Diego blew things open in the eighth inning with a combined four runs off of Chad Durbin and Jonny Venters to make it an 8-1 game.

David Ross homered in the ninth off of Brad Brach making it an 8-2 game, but that was as close as the Braves got.