Kotsay burns former team; Braves beat A's

ATLANTA -- Mark Kotsay knocked in the go-ahead run in the eighth inning with a two-out RBI double, and the Atlanta Braves edged the A's 3-2 Friday night for their eighth consecutive home victory.

The loss was a season-high fourth in a row for the A's, who have dropped six of seven on their current nine-game road trip.

The Braves, who lost five of seven on a road trip that ended Thursday in a 5-0 loss to Philadelphia, have the best home record in the majors at 15-4. They also have the worst record away from Turner Field at 6-16.

Kotsay's double to right-center scored Chipper Jones, who had singled off Alan Embree to open the inning.

Embree (1-2) retired Mark Teixeira and Jeff Francoeur to start the inning, before giving up a single to Brian McCann, who went 3-for-4, that sent Jones to third and brought up Kotsay.

Manny Acosta (2-1) got the win with two scoreless innings of relief.

The Braves tied it 2-2 in the sixth on RBI hits by Francoeur and McCann.

Omar Infante opened the inning with a single, and Jones followed with another single before Teixeira hit into a double play. Francoeur followed with a single to score Infante, and McCann doubled to the wall in right, scoring Francoeur off A's starter Dana Eveland.

Former Brave Joey Devine, who went to the A's in a winter deal for Kotsay, came on and struck out -- who else? -- pinch-hitter Kotsay to end the inning.

Eveland allowed six hits, two runs, walked three and struck out four in 5 2/3 innings.

Jones, who went 2 for 3 and leads the majors with a .423 batting average, started after missing Thursday night's game at Philadelphia due to a strained groin.

"It feels much better," he said, "but I can still feel it."

The A's, who scored only two runs in their three-game sweep at Cleveland, matched that total in the second inning with a pair of unearned runs and could have had more had it not been for poor baserunning.

Kurt Suzuki opened with a single off Atlanta starter Jair Jurrjens, ending an 0-for-23 slump. Ryan Sweeney then doubled to the gap in right-center, but Suzuki was tagged out when he was nearly halfway home and attempted to retreat back to third.

Donnie Murphy then walked and Eveland bunted right to Jurrjens, whose throw home went wild for an error and allowed Sweeney to score. Murphy later scored on a bouncer to first, and Bobby Crosby followed with a single to right, but Eveland was thrown out at the plate by Francoeur with catcher McCann making a diving tag.

Jurrjens gave up eight hits, the two unearned runs, and walked three with three strikeouts in five innings.