Uribe, Capuano lead Dodgers over Braves 7-2

[April 24, 2012]  LOS ANGELES (AP) -- Juan Uribe tied a career high with four hits and drove in three runs, and Chris Capuano pitched out of trouble for seven innings to lead the Los Angeles Dodgers to a 7-2 victory over the Atlanta Braves on Monday night.

A.J. Ellis had a pair of RBI singles and Capuano (2-0) allowed a run, six hits and four walks while striking out five, helping the Dodgers improve to an NL-best 13-4. The left-hander needed 27 pitches to get out of the first inning unscathed, striking out Jason Heyward on a full count with the bases loaded.

Capuano escaped another jam in the fourth, retiring leadoff man Michael Bourn on a grounder with two runners in scoring position.

Uribe had an RBI single in the first and a two-run single with the bases loaded in the eighth.

The third baseman came in batting .211 with one RBI in 38 at-bats over his first 11 games, and returned to the lineup Sunday after missing four games with an injured left wrist.

David Ross and Dan Uggla homered for the Braves, who had won 10 of 12 after opening the season with four straight losses.

Atlanta third baseman Chipper Jones, who is 1 for 13 with five strikeouts against Capuano, sat this one out on the eve of his 40th birthday because of a troublesome left knee -- the one he had surgery on in March to repair a torn meniscus. The seven-time All-Star announced a month ago that this will be his final season of a big league career that began in 1993 and included a batting title in 2008 -- along with 11 stints on the disabled list.

Jair Jurrjens (0-2) gave up five runs and nine hits in three-plus innings. The right-hander, who led the Braves with 13 wins last season, retired only seven of the 17 batters he faced -- including Juan Rivera on a double-play grounder and Capuano on a sacrifice bunt.

It was the first time Jurrjens failed to record a strikeout in 42 starts since April 29, 2010, at St. Louis, when he departed after one inning with a strained left hamstring.

Coming off a 12-0 loss at Houston that ended a 3-3 road trip, the Dodgers got a run in the first on Andre Ethier's RBI single. First baseman Freddie Freeman got the Braves out of the inning with a great backhanded pick of Uggla's ugly relay throw from second base on Rivera's double-play grounder to third.

Ross tied it in the second with his first homer. But Los Angeles responded in the bottom half with RBI singles by Uribe and Ellis, who increased the margin to 4-1 in the fourth with another run-scoring single that chased Jurrjens. Two batters later, Dee Gordon had a sacrifice fly against Livan Hernandez.

The Braves pulled off an unorthodox double play in the fifth. Matt Kemp tried to score all the way from first on Ethier's single to left-center, running through third base coach Tim Wallach's stop sign. Left fielder Matt Diaz relayed to shortstop Jack Wilson, who threw a perfect strike to Ross for the tag on Kemp. Ross completed the double play with a snap throw to first after Ethier strayed too far off the bag.

NOTES: Freeman was chosen NL player of the week for the first time in his career, wresting the honors away from Kemp, who was the first player to win the award in the first two weeks of a season since OF Tony Armas did it with Oakland in 1981. ... Capuano was the ninth left-handed starter the Braves have faced in their first 17 games (5-4), and they'll get another on Wednesday night in Ted Lilly. ... Capuano pitched a two-hitter against the Braves with a career-high 13 strikeouts last August in a 6-0 win for the New York Mets. ... Kemp and Ethier have combined for 44 RBIs, three shy of the major league record for teammates through the first 17 games of a season. Alex Rodriguez had 31 and Jason Giambi 16 in 2007 with the Yankees.

[Associated Press]

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