ATLANTA - Erik Bedard finally had a chance to show the Pirates what he can do if given a few runs.
He's hoping it won't be such a rare sight.
Streaking Alex Presley helped the Pirates finally provide Bedard some support and Pittsburgh beat the Atlanta Braves 4-2 on Saturday night.
The Pirates scored a total of two runs with Bedard on the mound in his first four starts - the majors' lowest run support for a pitcher. They topped that by taking a 3-0 lead in the first two innings.
"It feels good," Bedard said after his first win with the Pirates. "When you can get up early, it helped out.
"Hopefully it keeps coming," he said.
Bedard (1-4) gave up only one run in five innings. The left-hander struck out nine while giving up five hits and two walks. He has not allowed more than two earned runs in any of his five starts.
It wasn't easy. Bedard needed 96 pitches to make it through five innings.
"The nine strikeouts were big," said Pirates manager Clint Hurdle. "He needed every one of them. It was a very blue-collar effort for Erik. That was probably the most he's had to grind in all of the five starts as far as throwing close to 100 pitches in five innings."
Presley had two hits to extend his career-best hitting streak to 12 games. He scored two runs and drove in a run with a double. Pedro Alvarez also had a run-scoring double.
The Pirates have been held to one run in each of their last five losses, including a 6-1 loss to the Braves on Friday night. They are 9-2 when scoring more than one run and 6-0 when scoring at least four runs.
"That's been the biggest thing for us, trying to get the timely hits," Alvarez said.
"Hopefully we can keep going. Whatever is given to us, take advantage of that."
Jason Grilli struck out the side in the eighth and Joel Hanrahan added two strikeouts in a perfect ninth for his fourth save. The game ended when right fielder Jose Tabata made a leaping catch at the wall of pinch-hitter Eric Hinske's drive.
Presley led off with a single and scored from third on Garrett Jones' flyball to center field. Presley's second-inning double into the left field corner drove in Rod Barajas, who singled. Tabata's single to right drove in Presley for a 3-0 lead.
Martin Prado doubled in the third inning and scored on Dan Uggla's two-out single for the Braves' first run.
The Pirates knocked Randall Delgado (2-2) out of the game in the fifth with back-to-back doubles by Neil Walker and Alvarez, pushing the lead to 4-1.
Bedard struck out Freddie Freeman and Uggla with runners on second and third to end the fifth.
The Braves scored a run off Chris Resop in the sixth when Jason Heyward doubled, stole third and scored on Juan Francisco's grounder to first.
After Tyler Pastornicky singled and advanced to third when the ball skipped past Tabata for an error, pinch-hitter Chipper Jones ended the inning with a grounder to second base.
