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Saltalamacchia's two homers lift Braves over Nationals

Jun 27, 2007 - 4:07 AM ATLANTA (Ticker) -- Jarrod Saltalamacchia made sure that it would not take another seven years for Buddy Carlyle to get his next major league win.

Saltalamacchia homered twice and Carlyle hurled seven solid frames to power the Atlanta Braves to a 6-2 victory over the Washington Nationals on Tuesday.

Playing for the first time in front of the home crowd at first base instead of his usual position at catcher, Saltalamacchia delivered.

The 22-year-old tied the game at 1-1 in the third inning by smashing a 2-2 pitch from Nationals starter Mike Bacsik (1-5) over the center field wall.

Saltalamacchia broke the tie in the fifth when he launched another solo blast into the left-center field bleachers for his first multi-homer performance of his 29-game major league career.

"I was happy after the first one," said Saltalamacchia, who caught Bacsik while the two were playing for the United States Olympic team in Cuba. "It was one of those things. It was my night."

Saltalamacchia, who was drafted out of high school in 2003, made a swift journey through the minor leagues. After catcher Brayan Pena was injured the rookie got the call to the big leagues on May 2. His stay was supposed to be brief.

But Atlanta's top prospect impressed the Braves so much that Pena was sent down to the minors. With All-Star Brian McCann entrenched behind the plate, Saltalamacchia was given a first baseman's glove in an attempt to get him more at-bats.

Saltalamacchia's heroics were enough to make a winner out of Carlyle (2-2).

The 27-year-old journeyman righthander, who has played with 17 teams in the majors, minors and Japan, went seven years and 269 days between his first major league victory in 1999 and his second on June 5.

But it took just three weeks for Carlyle to win his third. The Nebraska native allowed one run and five hits with one walk and six strikeouts in a 95-pitch effort.

"I honestly don't feel like I did anything different over the last seven years," Carlyle said. "A lot of teams wouldn't have given me another chance. Braves manager Bobby (Cox) gave me another chance and I'm glad I helped the team get a win today."

Things didn't look good early on for Carlyle, who gave up a pair of singles with one out in the first before Washington ran itself out of a potential big inning.

Nationals slugger Dmitri Young singled to shallow left - extend his hitting streak to 10 games - but Felipe Lopez was nailed at the plate on a strong throw by left fielder Matt Diaz. Ryan Zimmerman also was nabbed attempting to advance to third base to complete the unusual double play and end the rally.

"It's easy to second-guess since he got thrown out," Nationals manager Manny Acta said. "The guy made a great throw. We took a chance at the plate. We can't afford to do that. We can't be giving outs away."

Carlyle found his groove after the wild first, scattering just one run and two hits thereafter.

"Carlyle settled down after the first two innings," Cox said. "He gave us a great, great performance."

Bob Wickman entered with one out and two runners on base in the ninth to record his 14th save of the season.

Prior to the visit by Washington, Atlanta was in the midst of a horrid stretch in which it dropped five straight to the Red Sox and Tigers, were shut out four times and were outscored by a 27-1 margin.

Slumping Andruw Jones, who had just one hit in his last 31 at-bats to plummet his average to a woeful .196, finally found his power stroke, belting a three-run homer in the fifth inning to give the Braves a 5-1 advantage.

"Andruw hit a three-run homer," Cox said. "That was huge. It's everything we wanted for Andruw to pick it up, that's for sure."

Jones did not have an extra-base hit since June 9 against the Chicago Cubs, a span of 56 at-bats.

"He's going to have a monster second half," McCann said. "He's one of the best players in the game. He's started to better swings on the ball the last three or four games. It's only a matter of time for him to go off and carry us and (his struggles) will be forgotten."

Bacsik allowed five runs and eight hits with a walk over six innings en route to dropping his fifth straight decision.

Former Brave Ryan Langerhans drove in a run in the third for the Nationals, who have homered just once in 11 games against the Braves this season.