Braves start spring slate with victory

Emilio Bonifacio was 2-for-2 and drove in a pair of runs, and Bartolo Colon gave up one run and three hits in his debut for Atlanta as the Braves won their Grapefruit League opener Saturday, beating Toronto 7-4 in Kissimmee, Fla.

Colon, 43, signed to a oneyear deal last November, is being counted on to bring experience to the rotation early this season, along with knuckleballer R.A. Dickey, 42, who also signed a one-year contract last fall and is expected to get the next spring training start on the mound.

Colon faced eight batters Saturday, escaping the first inning when Darrell Ceciliani grounded into a double play after Jake Elmore’s single. Colon allowed back-to-back doubles to Rowdy Tellez and Anthony Alford to start the second inning, giving Toronto a 1-0 lead, but then got Reese McGuire to fly out and Dwight Smith to ground out before sitting down Jon Berti on three called strikes.

The Blue Jays stretched their lead with a two-run fourth — John Danks followed Colon and gave up three hits and two walks in 1 1/3 innings — but the Braves got RBI singles from Adonis Garcia and Tyler Flowers in the bottom half.

Toronto’s Jake Elmore, who finished 3-for-3, had an RBI single off Blaine Boyer in the fifth before Atlanta answered again, this time for four runs and a 6-4 lead.

Bonifacio had a single for his first of two RBIs — his second came on a ground-rule double in the eighth that scored Johan Camargo — Jace Peterson had an RBI single and Anthony Recker’s single to left field brought home Bonifacio and Peterson with two outs in the fifth.

Dustin Peterson finished 2-for3 to help the Braves outhit the Blue Jays 11-10.

Boyer got the win after giving up three hits while striking out two in 1 2/3 innings. Luke Jackson pitched a scoreless ninth with one strikeout to earn the save.