Evan Gattis grand slam leads Braves past Twins

Atlanta: Evan Gattis kept up an amazing rookie season with his first grand slam and B.J. Upton and Ramiro Pena also homered as the Atlanta Braves finished off a sweep of the woeful Minnesota Twins with an 8-3 rout on Wednesday.

The Braves stretched their winning streak to six games with their second straight series sweep, making things easy for starter Paul Maholm (6-4). The left-hander held the Twins to an unearned run in 7 1-3 innings.

With the Braves already leading 4-0, Gattis struck again less than 24 hours after his two-out, pinch-homer in the ninth allowed the Braves to pull out a 5-4 win over the Twins in extra innings.

He was swinging away on a 3-0 pitch with the bases loaded in the fourth and launched an opposite-field drive just inside the right-field pole for the 10th homer of his improbable debut season.