|
RECAP
|
BOX SCORE
|
GAME LOG
ATLANTA (AP) -- Chipper Jones was tired of watching his Atlanta
Braves teammates take care of the hitting.
|  | | Chipper Jones is all smiles after his second homer of the game, a three-run shot off the Expos' Matt Blank, buried Montreal. |
Jones homered twice and tied a career-high with five RBI,
leading the Braves above the .500 mark for the first time in nearly
two months with a 7-4 victory over the Montreal Expos on Tuesday
night.
While the rest of the team has been hitting better in recent
weeks, Jones went the other way. He was mired in an 8-for-57 slump
that dropped his batting average from .342 to .274.
"Everybody was leaving me out in the cold by myself," Jones
said. "It was kind of depressing. We were experiencing success and
I had very little to do with it. It was good to contribute."
Jones, a switch-hitter, had his first two right-handed homers of
the season against lefty Matt Blank, making his first career start
for the Expos.
Blank, who made 13 relief appearances for Montreal last year,
was called up after Monday's game when Chris Peters was sent to the
minors.
"I felt like I was ready to go," Blank said. "I thought I did
pretty good. I just made some mistakes at the wrong time with runners on base."
With the score tied at 1 in the third, Jones hit a 407-foot
drive into the center-field stands for a two-run homer.
In the fifth, he managed an even longer homer to center off a
changeup with two runners on, easily clearing the wall with a
424-foot shot for his 14th of the year.
"Right-handed is my natural swing," said Jones, who has had
more success from the other side during his career. "I'm a lot
more consistent right-handed than left-handed."
The Braves (26-25) have won six of the last eight games and are
above .500 for the first time since April 6, when they stood 3-2.
"We're playing good," manager Bobby Cox said. "We just need
to be more consistent with our hitting."
Jones didn't get a chance to break his career RBI mark; the
Expos walked him in the seventh with runners at second and third.
Brian Jordan followed with a sacrifice fly to give the Braves a
three-run cushion.
Still, Jones had five RBI for the fifth time in his career, the
last coming on April 7, 1998, against Pittsburgh. It was his third
two-homer game of the season and 21st of his career.
Odalis Perez (3-4) picked up the win despite allowing seven hits
and four runs in six innings. He got a key double play from his
next-to-last batter to avoid more trouble.
Jason Marquis worked two scoreless innings before John Rocker
came on in the ninth to earn his 14th save.
"Perez, you could see he had started to lose it," Montreal
manager Felipe Alou said. "But he was good enough to win the
game."
Lee Stevens homered for the second night in a row, hitting a
two-run drive in the sixth after Vladimir Guerrero reached base on
a strikeout. The pitch skipped in the dirt, bounced off catcher Javy Lopez and wound up in the stands.
Mike Mordecai and Orlando Cabrera added run-scoring singles for
the Expos.
Blank (0-1) surrendered five hits and six runs in 4 1/3 innings,
also hurting himself with four walks.
Bernard Gilkey drove in Atlanta's first run with a sacrifice fly
in second.
Rafael Furcal got all the way to second base with a bunt in the
seventh. He beat the throw to first, then took an extra base when
Montreal threw toward a runner at third and left the other bag
uncovered.
Game notes
Jones has homered twice in a game against left-handers four
times in his career. The last came on Sept. 5 -- against the Big
Unit, no less, Arizona's Randy Johnson. ... The Expos ensured their
13th loss in 17 series this season. ... The Braves, one of just
three teams that have yet to win three in a row, will try again Wednesday when Greg Maddux faces Montreal's Javier Vazquez. "I
don't look at one, two and three," Cox said. "I'd rather look at
six and seven."
 Send this story to a friend
| |
RECAPS
Cleveland 6
Detroit 4
Toronto 4
Chi. White Sox 0
Texas 8
Kansas City 2
Minnesota 6
Anaheim 5
Tampa Bay 5
Oakland 1
Seattle 3
Baltimore 2
Chicago Cubs 10
Cincinnati 5
Florida 5
Pittsburgh 0
Philadelphia 7
NY Mets 3
Atlanta 7
Montreal 4
Milwaukee 7
St. Louis 0
San Diego 5
Houston 4
Colorado 7
Los Angeles 2
Arizona 1
San Francisco 0
|
