Atlanta, GA – Evan Gattis hit a grand slam and B.J. Upton had a solo homer as part of a five-run fourth inning that helped the Atlanta Braves down the slumping Minnesota Twins, 8-3, to complete a three-game interleague sweep at Turner Field.
Ramiro Pena provided a solo shot, while Jason Heyward and Chris Johnson each had two hits and drove in a run for the Braves, who have won six straight.
Atlanta has swept back-to-back three-game series against the Los Angeles Dodgers and Twins.
"It's good to come in and win the amount of games we did, especially after the road trip we came off," Upton said. "It's just good to win ball games all together. It's still early, it's only getting close to the end of May and there's a lot of baseball left to be played."
Paul Maholm (6-4) tossed 7 1/3 innings and allowed one unearned run and seven hits with four strikeouts.
Justin Morneau drove in one run and Aaron Hicks and Oswaldo Arcia each hit solo homers in the ninth for the Twins, losers of eight straight. Starter Vance Worley (1-5) allowed all eight runs on 10 hits over just 3 2/3 innings to absorb the loss.
"It is what it is," added Worley, who was optioned to Triple-A Rochester following the game. "I went out there and I left the ball up a little bit. ERA is killing me. It's hard to win a game if you're behind. Just work on being myself, get back to what I was doing and I'll be back."
Atlanta opened up the scoring early, as Worley struggled with the initial three batters he faced. Jordan Schafer drew a leadoff walk and Pena followed with a single before Heyward made it a 1-0 game with a run-scoring line-drive single to center.
The hosts added two more runs in the third. Pena smacked a homer down the right-field line with one down and after Worley plunked Heyward and Gattis in between a Freddie Freeman strikeout, Johnson delivered an RBI single.
The Braves then broke open the contest in the fourth, thanks to the long ball.
Upton smacked a leadoff homer to left-center, his fourth of the season, to make it 4-0, but the inning was far from over. Later in the frame, Heyward hit an infield single and Freeman drew a two-out walk to load the bases. Gattis then clubbed Worley's 3-0 offering down the right-field line for an opposite- field grand slam and 8-0 Atlanta lead.
Morneau put the Twins on the board in the sixth with a two-out RBI single, while both Hicks' and Arcia's solo shots in the ninth came off Atlanta reliever Cory Rasmus.
Game Notes
Minnesota placed third baseman Trevor Plouffe on the 7-day concussion disabled list prior to Wednesday's game, selected the contract of first baseman Chris Colabello from Triple-A Rochester and transferred outfielder Darin Mastroianni to the 60-day disabled list ... The Braves improved to 15-5 at Turner Field this season ... Atlanta leads the all-time regular-season series, 7-5 ... Maholm has won all his starts this season when being backed by at least two runs ... Minnesota has lost eight games in a row for the first time since an 11-game slide from Sept. 9-21, 2011.
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