Yoshihisa Hirano picked up his first save of the season in the Arizona Diamondbacks' 4-1 victory over the Atlanta Braves on Thursday.

In his 10th game appearance of the year, Hirano came on as the fifth pitcher for the Diamondbacks at SunTrust Park, and worked a scoreless ninth inning though he needed 20 pitches to nail it down.

"I was told I would take the mound in a save situation so I was ready," Hirano said.

"My fastballs were effective and the batters were fouling off nasty forkballs. I'm glad I was able to contribute to the team's win," he said.

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The 35-year-old Japanese yielded a one-out single to Ender Inciarte, but struck out two and got the last batter to line out.

Christian Walker hit a two-run homer in a three-run seventh as visiting Arizona completed a three-game sweep and won four straight.

Luke Weaver (1-1) struck out nine in five scoreless innings for the win. Braves starting pitcher Mike Soroka (0-1), who allowed one run on four hits in five innings of work, was tagged with the loss.

[Getty/Kyodo]