By Charles Odum
Associated Press
ATLANTA ó The Milwaukee Brewers suddenly are winning consistently on the road.
That doesn’t mean they’re making it look easy.
Salomon Torres and the Brewers had to survive a scary ninth inning before beating the Atlanta Braves 4-3 on Tuesday night.
Dave Bush earned his first road victory of the season, scattering four hits over seven innings, but had to watch in the ninth as Torres almost blew a 4-1 lead and left the tying run on third base.
“It’s always harder to watch from the dugout,” Bush said. “It was nerve-wracking.”
The Brewers are 18-21 on the road with four straight wins, including two in a row over the Braves.
Mark Teixeira, who had three homers Sunday against Seattle, hit a two-run homer off Torres in the ninth. Brian McCann followed with a single, pinch-runner Jair Jurrjens took second on Omar Infante’s sacrifice bunt and moved to third on Jeff Francoeur’s groundout.
Torres issued an intentional walk to Brandon Jones before Corky Miller hit a soft liner to shortstop J.J. Hardy to end the game.
“The positive thing I can take from this is when things got tough, I was able to re-direct my attention to keeping the ball down and letting them swing at it,” Torres said.
“Even with (McCann’s) hit, I was back in control. I was able to settle down. … After (Teixeira’s homer), I was able to be the Salomon you all know and love.”
Bush (4-7) walked one and gave up one run for his first road victory since Aug. 21, 2007 at Arizona. He had been 0-4 with an 8.10 ERA in seven road appearances, including six starts, this season.
“Bush pitched well,” Teixeira said. “He was mixing his fastball in and out of the strike zone, throwing a pretty good changeup and pretty good curveball. He kept us off balance.”
Bush has given up a combined six hits and two runs in two straight wins.
“He is throwing better,” Brewers manager Ned Yost said. “He’s throwing more strikes. … He’s getting ahead in the count.”
Torres earned his 13th save and is 12-for-12 since taking over as closer on May 24.
The Brewers (43-34) are a season-high nine games over .500.
The Braves committed a season-high four errors, including three in the first to allow two unearned runs.