ATLANTA — Evan Gattis kept up an amazing rookie season with his first grand slam, B.J. Upton and Ramiro Pena also homered, and the Atlanta Braves finished off a sweep of the woeful Minnesota Twins with an 8-3 rout on Wednesday.

The Braves stretched their winning streak to six games with a second straight series sweep, making things easy for starter Paul Maholm (6-4). The left-hander held the Twins to an unearned run in 7 1-3 innings.

With the Braves already leading 4-0, Gattis struck again less than 24 hours after his two-out, pinch-homer in the ninth allowed the Braves to pull out a 5-4 win over the Twins in extra innings.

He was swinging away on a 3-0 pitch with the bases loaded in the fourth and launched an opposite-field drive just inside the right-field pole for the 10th homer of his improbable debut season.

As Gattis rounded the bases, the theme from “The Natural” played over the speakers at Turner Field. In the Atlanta dugout, Upton looked on in disbelief, both arms in the air as if to say, “Is this really happening?”

Believe it. The 26-year-old Gattis made the team as a non-roster player in spring training after quitting baseball during college, working a variety of odd jobs, and dealing with bouts of depression that had him contemplating suicide. He still has a picture of his ID card from working as a janitor on his Twitter page.

He eventually returned to baseball after completing a spiritual journey. He got extensive playing time in April while the Braves battled injuries, earning the NL rookie of the month honors, and he’s making the most of his more limited chances in May.

Gattis’ dramatic homer Tuesday was his third as a pinch-hitter, and it was the fourth time he’s hit a tying or go-ahead homer in the eighth inning or later. He got the start at catcher for the series finale, giving Brian McCann the day off.

Vance Worley (1-5) had another dismal outing for Minnesota, failing to make it through the fourth as the Twins lost their eighth in a row. He surrendered eight runs and 10 hits in 3 2-3 innings, also hitting two batters and walking two more. His ERA climbed to 7.21, and it would have been worse if Pena had not been thrown out at the plate in the first attempting to score on a flyout to left fielder Josh Willingham.

Immediately after the game, Worley was demoted to Triple-A Rochester.

Before leaving, Worley’s horrendous problems in the first continued when he surrendered two hits and a walk, including Jason Heyward’s run-scoring single. In 10 starts, the right-hander had allowed 17 runs and 24 hits in the opening inning.

Atlanta made it 3-0 in the third. Pena hit his second homer of the season and, after Worley plunked a pair of hitters, Chris Johnson came through with a two-out single to bring in another run.

The Braves blew it open in the fourth. Upton, hitting just .153 coming in, led off with a homer into the seats in left-center. After Maholm’s flyout, Jordan Schafer singled, Heyward singled, Freddie Freeman walked and Gattis went deep to finish off the Twins.

Minnesota’s only run off Maholm came after Johnson’s error at third base set up Justin Morneau’s RBI single in the sixth.

Aaron Hicks and pinch-hitter Oswaldo Arcia homered in the ninth off Cory Rasmus, making his major league debut.

NOTES: The Twins placed 3B Trevor Plouffe on the seven-day DL with a concussion. He took a blow to the head in the 10th inning of Tuesday night’s game while breaking up an attempted double play. … Minnesota called up former independent league star Chris Colabello, who was batting .358 at Triple-A Rochester and leading the International League with 12 homers and a .659 slugging percentage. Colabello got the news after midnight on a bus ride from Allentown back to Rochester, just made an early morning flight to Atlanta and was in the lineup for the 12:10 p.m. start, playing right field and batting sixth. He went 0 for 4 with two strikeouts. … The Braves already have swept five series this season. … Rasmus is the younger brother of Toronto OF Colby Rasmus.

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VIRGINIA WATER, England — Sergio Garcia apologized to Tiger Woods on Wednesday for saying he would have “fried chicken” at dinner with his rival, a comment that Woods described as hurtful and inappropriate.

“I want to send an unreserved apology. I did not want to offend anyone,” Garcia said Wednesday. “My answer was totally stupid and out of place.”

Garcia was at a European Tour awards dinner Tuesday night when he was jokingly asked if he would have Woods over for dinner during the U.S. Open. The two players had been verbally sparring since The Players Championship nearly two weeks ago.

“We’ll have him round every night,” Garcia replied. “We will serve fried chicken.”

The remark took the golfers’ differences into ugly territory, reminiscent of when Fuzzy Zoeller made a similar comment about Woods after he won the 1997 Masters, becoming the first player of black heritage to win a major.

“The comment that was made wasn’t silly. It was wrong, hurtful and clearly inappropriate,” Woods said in a series of tweets. “I’m confident that there is real regret the remark was made. The Players ended nearly two weeks ago and it’s long past time to move and talk about golf.”

For once, both players agreed.

Garcia held an impromptu news conference at the BMW PGA Championship to elaborate on a statement he sent out Tuesday night through the European Tour.

“I want to also apologize to my Ryder Cup teammates who were there last night for taking the shine away from a wonderful event, and finally and foremost, I want to apologize to Tiger to anyone I could have offended. I felt very sick about it and feel really bad, and just hope to settle things down and move on.”

Garcia said he called Mark Steinberg, Woods’ agent at Excel Sports, because he doesn’t have a phone number for the world’s No. 1 player.

The Spaniard said his comment about fried chicken was not intended as a racist remark.

“It was a funny question and I wanted it to be a funny answer in reply,” he said. “I started to get a sick feeling straight after the dinner and I felt so bad I thought my heart was going to come out of my body. I felt bad about (it) all day.”

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