Ahmed’s RBI hit lets D-Backs top Braves

ATLANTA – Nick Ahmed hit a tiebreaking single in the seventh after Zack Godley allowed a run over six innings, and the Arizona Diamondbacks beat the Atlanta Braves 2-1 on Friday night.

Both teams began the week in first place but have since fallen out. The Diamondbacks began the night a half game behind the Dodgers in the NL West. The Braves fell 1 ½ games behind NL East-leading Philadelphia.

“In my mind, I don’t know where the pieces are to put it together to suddenly have offense,” Braves manager Brian Snitker said. “We’re kind of not hitting on all cylinders as a team. It’s not one guy.”

Godley (11-6) gave up three hits in the first, including Kurt Suzuki’s runscoring single. He allowed only two hits over the next five innings and struck out seven overall.

“I felt really good,” Godley said. “They were aggressive and put the ball in play and the defense was unbelievable behind me.”

Brad Boxberger struck out the side in the ninth for his 23rd save.

Braves right-hander Anibal Sanchez also was sharp, allowing a run and five hits in six innings. The righthander gave up his run in the sixth, when Alex Avila doubled to left and scored from third on Jon Jay’s blooper into shallow left field.

Jay moved to third on a hit-and-run single by Paul Goldschmidt but was thrown out at the plate by first baseman Freddie Freeman on David Peralta’s grounder.

Arizona quickly took the lead against the bullpen in the seventh. Daniel Descalso drew a one-out walk from Sam Freeman (2-5) and scored on Ahmed’s single up the middle off Dan Winkler.

Steven Souza Jr. led off the third with a double to left field but, with the help of a video review, was picked off second by Sanchez. The review showed the tag by shortstop Dansby Swanson before Souza returned to the bag.

Many fans in the SunTrust Park record crowd of 42,130 left their seats when rain began in the sixth, but the only delay was for the grounds crew to add dry dirt to the mound.