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GAME LOG
PHOENIX (AP) -- After a pair of two-run homers by Reggie Sanders, Rafael Furcal thought his three-run homer was just icing on another Atlanta victory.
|  | | Reggie Sanders hits his second two-run shot off Todd Stottlemyre on Saturday, his first multihomer game since June 30, 1999. |
It turned out to be more important than that in the Braves'
12-10 over the Arizona Diamondbacks on Saturday.
"We needed those three runs," said Furcal, whose homer off
Russ Springer in the fifth inning sent Atlanta to an 11-3 lead. "I
had a pretty good swing. He made a mistake with his fastball and
threw it right in the middle."
The Braves got power from unexpected sources, including starter
John Burkett, who had an RBI single.
Sanders, struggling through the worst season of his nine-year
career, hit his ninth and 10th homers. It was his first multihomer
game since June 30, 1999, against Los Angeles, and the 10th of his
career.
Furcal's homer was the second of his career. He homered against
Houston on Sept. 2.
"I save every ball for my family. It's a good memory to me,"
the rookie said.
Andres Galarraga hit his 27th homer, a solo shot off Geraldo
Guzman, in the seventh.
Burkett (9-6) also ended a string of disappointments, winning
for the first time in nearly seven weeks. Burkett, who was 0-2 in
six starts since beating Houston 13-5 on July 29, allowed four runs
and eight hits in 6 2/3 innings.
The Diamondbacks scored six runs in the ninth. Jason Conti hit a
two-run triple, Tony Womack followed with a triple for Arizona and
scored on Danny Bautista's single off Scott Kamieniecki, who didn't
retire any of the five batters he faced.
Pinch-hitter Rod Barajas then hit a two-run homer off Terry
Mulholland in his first at-bat of the season.
"I was just trying to get a hit," said Barajas, who was called
up from Triple-A Tucson on Sept. 1. "All of a sudden I was down,
0-2, and I just wanted a piece of the ball."
After that, John Rocker came on and struck out three straight
batters for his 22nd save in 24 chances.
"This game is weird," Burkett said. "You never know which run
is going to be the winning run. But I felt good that I gave up
three runs early and was able to shut them down. You see games
where it keeps going back and forth and runs keep getting scored,
but I was able to get them stopped."
Greg Colbrunn had an RBI single off Burkett in the first inning,
and Womack gave the Diamondbacks a 3-2 lead with a sacrifice fly in
the second after Kelly Stinnett hit a run-scoring single.
But Burkett settled down after that, retiring 14 of 16 batters
until Conti doubled with one out in the seventh. One out later,
Bautista hit an RBI double.
The Braves, who remained two games ahead of the New York Mets in
their division, scored seven runs in three innings off Todd
Stottlemyre (9-6).
Stottlemyre allowed five hits -- including both homers by Sanders
-- walked two, hit a batter and threw a wild pitch that allowed
Galarraga, his only strikeout victim, to reach base.
"I think his whole objective was to throw strikes, and those
strikes killed him," Sanders said. "He just left too many pitches
over the plate."
It was Stottlemyre's first loss in three starts since returning
to the rotation after a 10-week layoff because of tendinitis in his
right elbow.
"I'd like to tell you that I didn't feel good, but I felt
good," Stottlemyre said. "I'd like to tell you that, `Well, I
didn't execute.' But the fact of the matter is that they executed
better than I did today. I didn't give us much of a chance."
The Diamondbacks entered the day four games behind the Mets in the wild card race.
Sanders homered into the swimming pool in right center in the
second inning and drove in the last two runs of the five-run
Atlanta third with a drive into the Diamondbacks bullpen.
Earlier in the inning, Chipper Jones drove in a run with a
double, Galarraga had an RBI groundout and Javy Lopez hit an RBI
single.
Burkett drove in his run in the fifth, making it 8-3, and was
aboard along with Keith Lockhart, who was intentionally walked,
when Furcal pulled a pitch just over the right-field wall.
Game notes
Burkett, who has made nine relief appearances, is 8-4 as a starter. ... Furcal has a 10-game hitting streak. ... Sanders was
hitting .206, with career lows of eight homers and 23 RBI, before
the game. ... Sanders had two two-homer games last year, including
one on April 24 against Arizona. ... After the game, Stottlemyre
took a leave of absence to be with his father, Yankees pitching
coach Mel Stottlemyre, who had a stem-cell transplant Thursday to
treat his blood cancer. He declined to comment on his father's
condition. ... Atlanta is now 24-2 when Galarraga homers.
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Baseball Scoreboard
Atlanta Clubhouse
Arizona Clubhouse
RECAPS
Boston 8
Detroit 5
Detroit 12
Boston 2
(2nd game)
NY Yankees 6
Cleveland 3
Oakland 5
Tampa Bay 2
Seattle 14
Baltimore 0
Chi. White Sox 6
Toronto 3
Anaheim 7
Minnesota 6
Kansas City 8
Texas 5
Cincinnati 7
Milwaukee 3
St. Louis 7
Chicago Cubs 6
Atlanta 12
Arizona 10
NY Mets 10
Montreal 4
Florida 3
Philadelphia 2
Houston 10
Pittsburgh 9
San Francisco 4
San Diego 3
Los Angeles 5
Colorado 4
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