Renteria, Braves rally past Dodgers

May 6, 2007, 20:35 GMT

Atlanta, GA - Edgar Renteria drove in a pair of runs and scored twice while extending his hit streak to 15 games, as the Atlanta Braves put up five runs in the seventh inning to down the Los Angeles Dodgers, 6-4, in the rubber match of their three-game series at Turner Field.

Catcher Jarrod Saltalamacchia, one of the club's top prospects, recorded his first major-league hit and finished 2-for-4 with an RBI for Atlanta, which has won three of its last four.

'I've only been here four, five days, and you can tell it doesn't matter if we're down by six, we have a chance to come back,' Saltalamacchia said.

Kyle Davies got the start and yielded four runs over 6 2/3 frames. The bullpen was lights out from there, though, with Chad Paronto (2-0) picking up the win and Mike Gonzalez working the ninth for his first save of the season.

Randy Wolf appeared in line for the victory after tossing 5 1/3 innings of one- run, six-hit ball. Chin-hui Tsao (0-1), though, was tagged for five runs in two-thirds of an inning to blow the lead for the Dodgers, who have dropped two of three.

'You don't go through a whole year without going through a rough patch,' said Wolf of Tsao. 'And if this is as rough as it gets for him, we'll take it. It's just one bad game.'

Wilson Betemit hit his second pinch-hit homer in as many appearances, and Mike Lieberthal went 2-for-4 with an RBI and a run scored in a losing effort.

The home team put up a five-spot in the seventh inning to erase a three-run deficit and move in front, 6-4. With runners on second and third and nobody out, Renteria cracked a double to right-center to bring in the first two runs of the inning.

The next two batters were put down in order, but pinch-hitter Scott Thorman came through with a run-scoring single that knotted the game at 4-4 and chased Tsao from the game. Chad Billingsley fared no better, yielding RBI singles to both Saltalamacchia and Chris Woodward as the Braves charged in front.

The Atlanta bullpen did the rest.

The Braves went up 1-0 in the first, as Matt Diaz hit a two-out single to right that plated Renteria.

Los Angeles, though, countered with four unanswered runs to take command.

Andy LaRoche, who was making his major-league debut, kickstarted the Dodgers offense with a ground-rule double to right. Andre Ethier followed with an RBI single, advanced to second on the play, then scored on a Lieberthal base hit.

Betemit's two-run homer in the seventh extended the lead to 4-1. Following a two-out single by Lieberthal, Betemit stepped in and launched a hanging curve into the right-field seats.

Game Notes

Chipper Jones and manager Bobby Cox were both ejected in the seventh for arguing balls and strikes...Atlanta has a 12-10 series lead since the start of the 2004 campaign.

© 2007 The Sports Network

Game Notes

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