Braves fall to Blue Jays, 9-5

TORONTO - Vernon Wells homered and drove in three runs to help the Toronto Blue Jays beat the Atlanta Braves 9-5 on Saturday.

Wells finished with three hits, Rod Barajas hit a solo homer and Joe Inglett had two RBIs for Toronto, which got a solid effort from John Parrish in his first start since 2004.

Mark Teixeira hit his 16th homer and Gregor Blanco had a career-high four hits for the Braves. Teixeira has six homers and 11 RBIs in his past six games.

Parrish (1-0) allowed one run and four hits in six innings to win for the first time since May 19, 2007, for Baltimore against Washington.

Called up from Triple-A Syracuse on Friday to start in place of Shaun Marcum (right elbow), Parrish set down the first nine batters he faced before Blanco hit a leadoff single in the fourth. Ruben Gotay then grounded into a double play.

Scott Downs worked a perfect seventh to extend his scoreless innings streak to 25, the longest current streak in baseball. Brian Tallet gave up four runs in the eighth before B.J. Ryan closed it out.

Tim Hudson (8-6) allowed five runs and seven hits in five-plus innings for Atlanta. The right-hander, who walked three and struck out three, has won just one of his past seven starts.

Barajas put Toronto ahead 2-1 in the fifth with his sixth homer of the season. It was the first home run Hudson has surrendered to a right-handed batter this season, ending a streak of 193 at-bats.

Wells became the second right-hander to take Hudson deep when he led off the sixth with a drive into the second deck in left, his eighth.

Hudson then walked Matt Stairs, gave up a single to Scott Rolen and walked Lyle Overbay before being replaced by Jeff Bennett. One batter later, Adam Lind hit a sacrifice fly to make it 4-1.

After David Eckstein was hit by a pitch, Joe Inglett lined a two-run single to center.

Teixeira hit a two-run drive in Atlanta's four-run eighth but Toronto scored three in the bottom half. David Eckstein had an RBI single and Wells tacked on a two-run double.

Notes: Hudson has allowed eight home runs to left-handed batters this season. ... 3B Chipper Jones (right quad) missed his seventh straight start for the Braves, who also were without INF Yunel Escobar (shoulder) and INF Omar Infante (hamstring). All three took part in batting practice. ... Toronto manager Cito Gaston said RHP Brian Wolfe, who was demoted to Syracuse on Friday to make room for Parrish, was sent down to get work as a starter. Wolfe made 15 relief appearances this season before his demotion.