Look no further than Luke Hudson.

Hudson pitched five innings of two-hit, one-run ball in the Reds' 3-2 victory over the Atlanta Braves before a crowd of 21,519 at Turner Field Thursday night.

The victory allowed the Reds to take the series, two games to one, and kept the Braves from clinching their 13th straight division title.

Hudson, a 27-year-old right-hander, allowed an unearned run in the first inning, walked three and struck out a career-high eight.

Hudson got an assist from Ryan Freel, who made a running, leaping catch at the wall to take away an extra-base hit from Marcus Giles.

Hudson raised his season record to 4-2 and lowered his team-leading ERA to 2.55.

Throw out his first start, and Hudson has been dominant. In his seven starts since, he is 4-1 with a 1.70 ERA, allowing 24 hits and striking out 32 batters over 37 innings.

The Braves scored a run off Hudson in the first inning without coming close to hitting the ball out of the infield.

Rafael Furcal led off with a bunt down the first base line. Hudson got to it and had an easy play at first, but he couldn't pick up the ball.

Furcal stole second, and Marcus Giles followed with a perfect bunt for a base hit. Hudson struck out J.D. Drew and Chipper Jones but, unfortunately for Hudson, one of the pitches to Jones was wild and allowed Furcal to score.

Jaret Wright was perfect through three innings for Atlanta.

The Reds finally got to him in the sixth inning. Felipe Lopez led off with a walk. Sean Casey followed with his 44th double of the year - a shot off the center field wall.

Adam Dunn got Lopez in with a groundout, and D'Angelo Jimenez followed with an RBI single to give the Reds a 2-1 lead.

The Red added a run in the seventh. After loading the bases with no outs, they settled for one on Casey's sacrifice fly.

Six relievers - Mike Matthews, Todd Van Poppel, Phil Norton, Jose Acevedo, Joe Valentine and Gabe White - held the Braves to one run over the last four innings.

Cincinnati	AB	R	H	BI	BB	SO	Avg.
Freel cf	5	0	2	0	0	1	.279
FLopez 3b	3	1	0	0	1	1	.258
Casey 1b	2	1	1	1	1	0	.330
Dunn lf	4	0	0	1	0	3	.263
DJimenez 2b	4	0	1	1	0	2	.263
Kearns rf	4	0	1	0	0	1	.216
Valentin c	4	0	0	0	0	0	.229
Machado ss	2	1	0	0	2	2	.314
Hudson p	2	0	0	0	0	0	.143
MMatthews p	0	0	0	0	0	0	---
Van Poppel p	0	0	0	0	0	0	.125
Bragg ph	0	0	0	0	1	0	.176
PNorton p	0	0	0	0	0	0	---
JoAcevedo p	0	0	0	0	0	0	.048
Larkin ph	1	0	0	0	0	1	.290
Valentine p	0	0	0	0	0	0	.000
GWhite p	0	0	0	0	0	0	---
Totals	31	3	5	3	5	11

Atlanta	AB	R	H	BI	BB	SO	Avg.
Furcal ss	4	2	1	0	1	0	.284
MGiles 2b	3	0	1	0	2	1	.302
JDrew rf	3	0	0	0	2	2	.311
CJones 3b	4	0	0	1	0	1	.252
JEstrada c	4	0	1	0	1	1	.311
JuFranco 1b	4	0	2	0	0	1	.301
AJones cf	3	0	1	0	1	1	.266
Thomas lf	4	0	0	0	0	1	.282
JSWright p	2	0	0	0	0	2	.105
Gryboski p	0	0	0	0	0	0	---
TMartin p	0	0	0	0	0	0	---
DeRosa ph	1	0	0	0	0	0	.241
Alfonseca p	0	0	0	0	0	0	.000
JuCruz p	0	0	0	0	0	0	.200
Marrero ph	1	0	0	0	0	1	.317
Totals	33	2	6	1	7	11

Cincinnati	000	002	100	-3	5	1
Atlanta	100	000	001	-2	6	1

E-Hudson (1), JSWright (2). LOB-Cincinnati 7, Atlanta 12. 2B-Casey (44), Furcal (22). RBIs-Casey (98), Dunn (96), DJimenez (63), CJones (92). SB-Machado (2), Furcal 2 (27), MGiles (16), JuFranco (4). SF-Casey, CJones.

Cincinnati	IP	H	R	ER	BB	SO	NP	ERA
Hudson W, 4-2	5	2	1	0	3	8	101	2.55
MMatthews H, 5	2/3	1	0	0	0	0	14	6.51
Van Poppel H, 2	1/3	0	0	0	0	0	1	6.23
PNorton H, 9	1	1	0	0	1	1	14	5.15
JoAcevedo H, 2	1	2	0	0	0	1	22	6.16
Valentine H, 5	1/3	0	1	1	3	1	26	6.20
GWhite S, 1	2/3	0	0	0	0	0	7	6.57

Atlanta	IP	H	R	ER	BB	SO	NP	ERA
JSWright L, 15-8	6	4	2	2	3	6	97	3.33
Gryboski	1/3	1	1	1	2	1	25	3.04
TMartin	2/3	0	0	0	0	1	4	4.19
Alfonseca	1	0	0	0	0	0	6	2.61
JuCruz	1	0	0	0	0	3	13	2.58

WP-Hudson 2, Gryboski.

T-3:25. A-21,519 (50,091).

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