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McCann's four RBI lift Braves over Padres

Jul 9, 2007 - 4:34 AM SAN DIEGO (Ticker) -- Brian McCann's performance this season impressed his peers enough to vote him to the All-Star Game. If anyone on the San Diego Padres had doubts about that selection, McCann cleared them up on Sunday.

McCann drove in four runs and Kyle Davies turned in six strong innings as the Atlanta Braves sweated out a 5-4 victory over the Padres.

Kelly Johnson hit a solo homer in a three-run second inning for the Braves, who pulled into the All-Star break two games behind the struggling New York Mets in the National League East.

"It was good to get Kyle a three-run lead there and let him go to work," McCann said. "Davies threw unbelievable today. We need him for the second half of the season to make this run, and today was a big step."

McCann has been struggling through a down year by his standards - batting .258 with eight homers entering Sunday's contest - but earned enough respect with his .333, 24 homer outburst last season to earn the player's and coach's vote as the back-up to All-Star starter Russell Martin at catcher.

"I'm happy to be going, and there are some other guys that could've gone too," McCann said. "It's been up and down from a personal standpoint, but there are two halves to the season. I could still end up helping this team win, so hopefully I can get going in the second half with the bat."

"I'd never worried about McCann," Braves manager Bobby Cox said. "His slumps are because he's hitting the ball, not missing it."

Atlanta's 23-year-old backstop put his team on the board in the second by blasting a two-run homer to deep right field to account for the game's first runs.

Davies allowed one run and four hits while striking out six and issuing a pair of walks. The 23-year-old righthander entered the contest 0-4 with an 8.06 ERA in five starts since earning his last win, June 1 at Chicago.

"It feels like it's been a while since I won a game," Davies said. "It was good. I made a whole lot better pitches and felt good out there."

"Kyle looked great for the first three innings," Cox said. "I thought he breezed. He did good. That was a good finish to the first half for him."

Peter Moylan pitched a perfect seventh and Rafael Soriano contributed a scoreless eighth for the Atlanta before closer Bob Wickman made it interesting. The portly righthander yielded three runs before freezing Marcus Giles with a fastball on the outside corner finish off the Padres.

"It was a ball," Giles said of the final pitch. "Judging by the overhead (view), it was about four inches (outside). It hit the white line in the other batter's box. I think (home plate umpire CB Bucknor) had a flight to catch or something."

"I think there were some questionable calls tonight," Padres manager Bud Black said. "You can say that about every game, I guess. I'll leave it at that."

The Braves jumped on future hall-of-famer Greg Maddux for five runs and six hits in five-plus frames. It was Maddux's second straight outing in which he allowed at least five earned runs.

McCann knocked Maddux out in the sixth. After Chipper Jones opened the inning with a single and stole second, Andruw Jones singled to center and moved to second when Chipper Jones drew a throw home rounding third.

McCann was up next, and he drove the first pitch he saw into center, scoring two runs to put the game away.

"Three quick hits in the sixth, which is what Greg does, he throws strikes, throws them early in the count and the Braves got him," Black said. "Tonight wasn't like we've seen from Greg overall. I'll take him every fifth day."

The Padres first run came in the third when Mike Cameron doubled home Adrian Gonzalez.

Andruw Jones, who entered the series with San Diego hitting a paltry .199, went 7-for-12 in the three games with a homer.