ATLANTA _ However your Sunday went, chances are it was more enjoyable than Drew Storen's afternoon at the park.
Tyler Flowers hit a grand slam and the Braves pounced on Reds reliever Storen for six runs in the fifth inning of an 8-1 win to avert a sweep at SunTrust Park, where Atlanta rookie Sean Newcomb picked up his second win and first home win by working out of a few tight spots before his teammate blew the game wide open.
Brandon Phillips had three hits including two fifth-inning singles off Storen, who faced 10 batters, recorded two outs and allowed six hits and two walks, including an intentional walk to load the bases before Flowers cleared them to push the lead to 6-0. It was 8-0 before Storen was replaced with two out in the inning.
The Braves snapped a five-game home losing streak and won for just the 10th time in 32 games since getting their record to 45-45 on July 16. The Reds didn't score until getting a run against rookie Max Fried with two out in the ninth inning.
In his last start Tuesday at Colorado, Newcomb (2-7) snapped a string of seven consecutive Braves losses in his outings when he pitched six solid innings _ three runs, all on solo homers _ but got no decision in a 4-3 win.
On Sunday, the rookie left-hander snapped his string of losses in five consecutive decisions with his first win since June 27, when he won at San Diego in his fourth major league start. He gave up five hits and five walks in five innings Sunday and matched his career low with two strikeouts, but Newcomb again showed a penchant for getting out of trouble when he stranded eight runners in a three-inning span.
The Reds left the bases loaded in both the third and fifth innings and stranded two in the fourth.
With bases loaded and one out in the third inning of a scoreless game, 5-foot-7 Braves rookie second baseman Ozzie Albies leaped high to snare a Joey Votto line drive, then Newcomb fell while fielding an Adam Duvall grounder but still managed to make an accurate, inning-ending toss to first base while on his chest and stomach.
Flowers' slam came on just the fourth pitch thrown in a four-batter span by Storen to start the fifth inning, after Reds starter Luis Castillo threw 90 pitches in four busy innings that included four hits, two runs, two walks and eight strikeouts.
The Braves had gone 1-for-7 with runners in scoring position in four innings against Castillo but vented some frustrations in that category against Storen, who was the Nationals' closer in 2015.
Storen came on to start the fifth and gave up a first-pitch leadoff single to Phillips, first-pitch ground-rule double to Freddie Freeman and intentionally walked Nick Markakis, which requires only a signal this year instead of the four pitches of the past.
Flowers' bases-loaded blast on an 0-1 pitch was the second grand slam of his career _ the other came with the White Sox at Seattle in 2011 _ and the franchise-record ninth grand slam allowed by the Reds this season including two by Braves hitters. Matt Adams hit the other on June 3 at Cincinnati.
Storen retired Adams on a grounder for the first out of the fifth inning, but rookie Ozzie Albies restarted the hit parade with a first-pitch triple, thus giving Storen a hitting cycle (allowed) on just nine pitches. Dansby Swanson and Phillips added run-scoring singles in the inning before Storen was replaced with two out.
After getting a walk and hit-by-pitch to start the second inning but frittering away that scoring opportunity with three consecutive strikeouts from Matt Adams, Albies and Swanson, the Braves had another scoring chance in the third after two-out singles from Phillips and Freeman. This time, they capitalized with a two-run double from Nick Markakis for a 2-0 lead.
That was their only hit in seven at-bats with runners in scoring position through four innings, but the Braves took it out on Storen in the fifth.
