Chris Johnson’s three hits power Atlanta Braves over Oakland Athletics

The Atlanta Braves took a series from arguably the best team in baseball tonight, after knocking off the Oakland Athletics 4-3 in their second game. Last night, the Braves and Alex Wood took game one and tonight Julio Teheran outpitched Sonny Gray.

Teheran went six innings and gave up just four hits. It was a bit of an odd night for the righty, as he only struck out one batter while walking three. Still, the only damage he allowed in the game came off the bat of Stephen Vogt in the sixth inning when the first baseman hit a two-run homer. Teheran worked for everything he got though, throwing 103 pitches (62 for strikes) over the entire outing.

Chris Johnson had a nice night at the plate behind Teheran, going 3-4 with two RBIs out of the fifth spot in the lineup. Phil Gosselin and Andrelton Simmons were the only other two Braves with multi-hit games–Gosselin added a run and Simmons an RBI.

Things got a bit dicey in the eighth inning when Jordan Walden gave up a solo home run to John Jaso–bringing the lead to just one run–but he managed to get out of the frame aftwerwards and Craig Kimbrel shut the door in the top of the ninth to grab his 36th save of the season (if you care about trivial things).

It’s great to see the Braves taking this series from the A’s, but they still have a lot of work to do. Looking at the standings page on MLB.com, the Nationals are still six games ahead of the Braves and are currently riding a five-game winning streak.