NL Roundup: A look at Wednesday's games

With Washington's infield tied up trying to get Brian McCann in a rundown, Atlanta rookie Jason Heyward decided to make a break for home.

Heyward crossed the plate safely, giving Atlanta its first swipe of home in a decade, and the Braves beat the Nationals 3-1 on Wednesday.

The off-the-cuff play, which came in the first inning, was made even more memorable when McCann survived the rundown, resulting in a double steal.

"You're not going to see a lot of it," Heyward said.

McCann didn't even realize he was marked down for a stolen base when he got to second.

"We got lucky," Atlanta manager Bobby Cox acknowledged. "That wasn't scripted. Can't take credit for that one."

That was part of a two-run first for Atlanta, and Tim Hudson shut down Washington the way he almost always does, helping the NL East-leading Braves beat the last-place Nationals. Hudson (11-5) allowed one run in 7 2-3 innings, improving to 10-1 with a 1.49 earned-run average for his career against the Nationals franchise.

"Everything he had was working," said Willie Harris, 0 for 3 with three strikeouts against Hudson. "He had everything tonight — sinker, change-up, cutter."

Elsewhere in the NL it was: Philadelphia 7 Arizona 1; San Francisco 10 Florida 9 (10 innings); Cincinnati 10 Milwaukee 2; Houston 8 Chicago 1; St. Louis 8 New York 7 (13 innings); Pittsburgh 6 Colorado 2; and San Diego 6 Los Angeles 1.

At Washington, Livan Hernandez (7-7) gave up three runs in 4 1-3 innings, his shortest outing of 2010.

Asked about removing Hernandez so early, Nationals manager Jim Riggleman replied: "I just felt like the way Hudson was throwing, we couldn't afford to give up any more runs."

Hard to argue with that reasoning.

Chipper Jones drove in two runs, and Martin Prado had three hits for Atlanta, which had lost four of its previous six games. The Braves were shut out by the Nationals on Tuesday, when reliever Miguel Batista went five innings as a last-minute replacement for Stephen Strasburg, whose pitching shoulder felt stiff.

Already leading Wednesday on Jones' sacrifice fly, the Braves went ahead 2-0 on Heyward's rare dash home. The last Braves player to steal home was Rafael Furcal on April 9, 2000, against San Francisco.

With one out and runners at the corners Wednesday, Hernandez struck out Eric Hinske. McCann broke for second base, and Nationals catcher Ivan Rodriguez's throw easily beat him to the bag. So McCann changed direction and headed back to first, winding up in a rundown.

That's when Heyward made his play, drawing a throw to the plate from first baseman Adam Dunn. Heyward was safe, while McCann took second.

"We didn't really execute it just the way we should have," Riggleman said. "They did a great job. Heyward left at the optimum time there to make it a tough play for Adam to get a throw off."

Said Dunn: "We might have been able to do it better, but I thought we did it good. It's just, he beat it. ... He's fast."

Hudson gave up seven hits, tied a season high with seven strikeouts and walked one — his final batter, Ryan Zimmerman, with two outs in the eighth. Jonny Venters entered to face cleanup hitter Dunn and struck him out swinging to end the inning. Dunn chucked his bat.

Billy Wagner pitched a perfect ninth for his 23rd save in 28 chances.

Washington's run came in the fifth, when Rodriguez doubled and came home on Michael Morse's single. Later in that inning, Adam Kennedy hit a shot off Hudson's shin. The pitcher gathered the ball and threw out Kennedy.

"He got me pretty good," Hudson said. "It's fine; just a flesh wound."

Phillies 7 Diamondbacks 1

At Philadelphia, Roy Halladay threw a six-hitter and top prospect Domonic Brown had two hits and two RBIs in his major league debut to lead the Phillies over Arizona.

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At San Francisco, Andres Torres hit a ground-rule single with the bases loaded and one out in the bottom of the 10th inning as the Giants edged Florida.

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At Milwaukee, Cincinnati's Brandon Phillips smacked a 450-foot grand slam, Travis Wood earned his first win in the majors and Toronto's Joey Votto went deep as Cincinnati beat the Brewers.

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At Houston, Carlos Lee hit two home runs, including the go-ahead homer in the sixth inning, as the Astros trounced Chicago.

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At New York, Albert Pujols drove in the go-ahead run with two outs in the 13th inning, as St. Louis survived a frantic comeback attempt by the Mets.

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At Denver, Garrett Jones homered twice and Pittsburgh overcame an early injury to starting pitcher Ross Ohlendorf to hand Colorado its eighth straight loss.

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Padres 6 Dodgers 1

At San Diego, Jerry Hairston Jr. drove in three runs leading the NL West-leading Padres to a win over rival Los Angeles.