James Loney had a tie-breaking RBI single in the seventh inning to lift the Los Angeles Dodgers to a 5-4 victory over the Atlanta Braves on Friday.

Loney singled to center to plate Andre Ethier with the winning run and make a winner out of Hong-Chih Kuo (1-1), who came on in relief to get four outs while allowing one hit and striking out one.

The Dodgers got off to a fast start, scoring a pair of runs in each of the first two innings. Ethier had a sacrifice fly and Ronnie Belliard an RBI double in the first to make it 2-0. Rafael Furcal ripped an RBI triple and Matt Kemp added a sac fly in the second to double the lead.

Dodgers starter Clayton Kershaw gave up four runs and five hits in 6 2/3 innings. Jonathan Broxton struck out two in the ninth for his 14th save of the season.

Yunel Escobar went 3-for-4 with three RBIs for Atlanta, which had a nine-game win streak snapped.

Kenshin Kawakami (0-8) remained winless and took the loss for the Braves after yielding five runs and nine hits with three walks and four strikeouts.