"Just in case the series finale against the last-place Astros was getting a little short on drama, the Braves called on their five-time All-Star catcher Tuesday afternoon for the game of his life in what amounted to a cameo appearance.

Brian McCann was scheduled for a day off. That meant only that Braves manager Fredi Gonzalez had McCann up his sleeve to pinch hit with two outs in the ninth inning.

Sure enough, down to his last strike, McCann launched a game-tying home run to force extra innings. His idea of a curtain call? McCann hit a two-run walk-off homer two innings later for a 3-1 win in 11 innings.

"Doesn't get much better than that," said McCann, still picking celebratory infield dirt his teammates covered him with out of his ear. "I ate six pounds of dirt."

While his teammates were thinking, "Hey, maybe a double here," with Eric Hinske at first base and one out in the 11th, McCann went well beyond democratic. He worked a 1-0 slider from reliever Jeff Fulchino for a shot just fair inside the right-field foul pole for his second career walk-off homer and first since last August against the Marlins.

McCann was only touring the premises when his shot to left center on a 1-2 curveball from Mark Melancon in the ninth became his second career pinch-hit home run.

"To be able to hit a ball to left center field, I've been working on it for a long time," said McCann, who doubled his home-run total for the season in two at-bats to four. "Today was the first time I've really backed one up to left center field for some power. I was very pleased."

While McCann was working on the finer points of his approach, backup catcher David Ross watched in awe. Ross caught the first nine innings before turning things over to McCann."