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Giants use homers in 11th to top Braves

Jul 19, 2012 - 5:07 AM Atlanta, GA (Sports Network) - Brandon Crawford and Gregor Blanco belted three-run homers off Chad Durbin in the 11th inning, boosting the Giants to a 9-4 win over the Atlanta Braves.

Melky Cabrera also went deep and knocked in two for the NL West leaders, who posted their season-high fifth straight win. They earned consecutive wins at Turner Field for the first time since Aug. 17-18, 2008. Wednesday's victory assured the Giants just their second regular season series win in 19 tries at Turner Field (2-14-3).

"We always seem to play exciting games. That one was up on the top for me," Crawford said.

The Braves, who lost 9-0, in the opener of this three-game set Tuesday, were down to their final out a night later, but Brian McCann extended the game with a two-run blast off Santiago Casilla (3-4) in the 10th inning.

Atlanta third baseman Chipper Jones, who had a pair of errors in the game, homered in the 11th. It was the 1,596th RBI of his career, passing Mike Schmidt and tying George Brett for the most in major league history by a third baseman.

Anthony Varvaro (1-1) hit Eli Whiteside with a pitch to start the 11th and then walked Brandon Belt. Durbin fanned Joaquin Arias and then faced Crawford, who crouched down in obvious pain after fouling a ball off his right knee on the first pitch. He smashed the next offering over the wall in right field for his second homer of the year, and first in his last 249 at-bats.

"It was right below the kneecap," Crawford said referring to the foul ball.

It was unlikely for Crawford to come out, considering the Giants had no position players left on the bench.

"I was thinking about that a little bit when I was on the ground," Crawford added. "(Matt) Cain said he was warming up."

Later in the frame, Blanco, who spent the first two-plus seasons of his career in Atlanta, went deep, also to right with Justin Christian and Cabrera aboard. It was his first career homer at Turner Field.

Juan Francisco led off the bottom of the third with his seventh homer of the year, a blast to center. The Giants failed to score after loading the bases in the fifth, but Cabrera tied the game with a homer to left with two down in the sixth.

San Francisco escaped trouble in the ninth when Javier Lopez struck out Michael Bourn on the ninth pitch of a bases-loaded at-bat.

The Giants got the upperhand in the 10th. Arias tripled to right field and Crawford was intentionally walked. Christian then hit a bouncer to Jones, who was playing in at third. Jones barehanded the ball and tried a scoop throw to home, but the ball sailed several feet over the head of McCann.

The bases were full again when Ryan Theriot walked, and Crawford scored on Cabrera's bloop hit to left-center field. Pinch-hitter Emmanuel Burriss lined out to leave the bases loaded.

Casilla, though, suffered his fifth blown save in his last eight chances. Freddie Freeman doubled with two outs and McCann blasted a homer to left.

"It's definitely a tough one, especially when you give up a couple of runs late in the game and B-Mac gets that two-run homer to tie it," Braves reliever Kris Medlen said. "I think we had some momentum going and it just didn't work out for us."

Game Notes

The start of the game was delayed 76 minutes by rain...The Giants placed catcher Hector Sanchez on the 15-day disabled list with a left knee sprain. Whiteside was recalled from Triple-A Fresno...The Giants moved to 6-1 in extra inning games this year...The homer for McCann was the 150th of his career...This is the first time the Giants have scored at least six runs in an extra inning since Aug. 7, 2001 at Cincinnati...Giants catcher Buster Posey, who was born in Leesburg, GA, about three hours from Atlanta, went 3-for-4 and is 12-for-21 over his last six games...The Braves entered Wednesday with a season-best seven-game errorless streak.