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Wells' bat leads Toronto past Atlanta, 9-5
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TORONTO — It's not often that Atlanta's Tim Hudson gives up a home run. When he does, he usually loses.

Hudson surrendered homers to Vernon Wells and Rod Barajas and the Toronto Blue Jays beat the Braves 9-5 on Saturday, dropping Hudson to 1-5 this season when he gives up a home run.

Wells, who had three RBIs, led off Toronto's four-run sixth with his eighth homer of the year.

"It's kind of weird," Hudson said. "That's a game where I felt pretty good, I felt in control. I just ran into some trouble in that sixth inning."

Hudson has allowed just 20 homers in his past 331 innings. Entering play Saturday, his ratio of .49 homers per nine innings this season was third best in baseball, behind Yankees right-hander Chien-Ming Wang (.40) and Arizona's Brandon Webb (.47).

Hudson (8-6) allowed six runs and seven hits in five-plus innings. The right-hander has won just one of his past seven starts.

"It wasn't his best game of the year, that's for sure," Braves manager Bobby Cox said.

Hudson has lost his past three road starts.

"I've got to go out and make better pitches," Hudson said. "That's the bottom line."

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.

Joe Inglett had two RBIs for Toronto, which got a solid effort from John Parrish in his first start since 2004.

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.

"I really didn't have anything to lose," Parrish said. "I knew coming in what the situation was and I just tried to forget about all that and go out there and do what I needed to do."

Parrish used a hard slider to keep the Braves off balance.

"His slider was working today," Teixeira said. "He pitched me tough. I drew a couple of walks off him and hit a ball hard my first at-bat, but he didn't give me much to hit and that's the way he was against the whole team."

Barajas felt good enough about Parrish's breaking ball to call for it regularly.

"He's got a good enough slider where he can throw it behind in counts," Barajas said. "Hitters can't just sit back and wait on the fastball."

Blue Jays manager Cito Gaston praised Parrish for pitching "a great ballgame."

"He earned his way back here and hopefully he's going to be a big part of this team," Gaston said.

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.

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 opened the sixth with a drive into the second deck in left.

"After that, I didn't make the pitches I needed to," Hudson said.

Matt Stairs walked, Scott Rolen singled and Lyle Overbay walked before Hudson was replaced by Jeff Bennett. One batter later, Adam Lind's sacrifice fly made 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. ... 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.

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