Newton Citizen

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 Oakland Athletics 3-2 Friday night for their eighth straight 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 at 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 52/3 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. Jurrjens gave up eight hits, the two unearned runs, and walked three with three strikeouts in five innings.