"After failing twice with runners in scoring position during regulation, Brian McCann made things right in the 10th inning.

His three-run homer in the top of the 10th lifted Atlanta to a 6-3 win Saturday night against the Houston Astros at Minute Maid Park, the fifth in a row for the injury-riddled but resurgent Braves.

"Every time I came up tonight I had a chance to do something, and didn't," McCann said. "It was very satisfying getting it in extra innings and giving us the lead."

He homered off Brandon Lyon with none out. Jordan Schafer hit a leadoff single and stole second and Dan Uggla walked, then McCann hit a three-run tie-breaker that gave him 501 career RBIs in fewer than six full seasons.

"In the [seventh] inning he rolled over one, the double-play ball,"Braves manager Fredi Gonzalez said. "Then he came back and got us a 'W.' Big at-bat for a guy who took a ball in his shoulder in the second inning. It was getting worse as the game wore on. It was a hell of an at-bat.

"He is what he is – he's an All-Star catcher who comes up big."

Eric Hinske hit his second homer in as many nights, Uggla had his first mult-hit game in more than a month, and the Braves improved to 6-2 on a 10-game trip that ends Monday.

The Braves have played extra innings in 14 games this season, including 10 of the past 28. They've won seven of their last nine extra-innings games.

"I think this team has probably taken about 10 years off my life already," third baseman Chipper Jones said with a sigh, then smiled. "But we're doing pretty well in the late innings in close situations. They build character, and the more and more we do it, the more confidence we have."

Jones had two defensive gems and two doubles, and scored the Braves' last run on Hinske's two-out single that capped a four-run 10th. But there was no question who had the biggest hit.

It was the guy with the grapefruit-sized welt on his right shin and ugly bruise on his right shoulder. That damage to McCann's body occurred during Saturday's game."