Braves avoid meltdown, top Reds

ATLANTA - The huge early lead. The starter battling his stuff. The once-bulky advantage beginning to dwindle.

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Tim Hudson and the Braves had seen it all unfold before. Say, a night earlier.

Unlike Thursday, though, Atlanta was able to hold onto its lead without the need for extra innings in a 7-4 victory against Cincinnati in front of 27,041 fans at Turner Field.

Philadelphia's victory, its third in a row, kept the Braves' lead in the NL East at four.

A night earlier, Atlanta led 7-1 at one point and 7-3 when starter John Smoltz, fighting a sore neck, came out after five innings. Four runs off the bullpen in the seventh forced Andruw Jones' heroic hand, a walk-off homer in the 10th.

No such dramatics were required Friday, even though it appeared to be headed in that direction again after a seven-run lead shrunk to three when Hudson left after 6Q innings.

Contrary to the previous evening's meltdown, the Braves' bullpen was game to close things out without undue duress.

"We needed to exorcise some demons, I guess you could say," said Chipper Jones, who hit a first-inning homer for the second consecutive day. "It was a little worrisome what happened (Thursday)."

Relieving Hudson, lefty John Foster came on and struck out Adam Dunn and Sean Casey, two of Cincinnati's best bats, to end the seventh.

Chris Reitsma entered and gave up two singles, the second of which was a ball left fielder Ryan Langerhans lost in the lights, but Kyle Farnsworth came on to clean up the eighth.

The hard-throwing righty, still serving as the team's unofficial closer, walked Griffey but got Dunn and Casey to end the game.

Casey, 8-for-15 lifetime against Farnsworth coming in, appeared to have a gapper that would have piled on the drama, but Langerhans raced over and laid out for a diving catch to, as he said, redeem his gaffe in the eighth.

"The last one was dynamite," manager Bobby Cox said of the catch. "Langerhans is as good as it gets out there."

It was Farnsworth's third save as a Brave and ninth in 11 chances overall this season. The deadline acquisition hasn't allowed a run in eight consecutive appearances.

The Braves' six-run fourth, which included a two-run triple by Hudson, put them ahead 7-0.

Reach Travis Haney at travis.haney@morris.com.