Braves pound Phillies 9-3 to take first place

By Carroll Rogers

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

It’s early. The Phillies are hurting. It could last only a day if the Braves lose on Tuesday night. Still, the Braves are in first place.

Whichever way the Braves want to spin it, a sun-splashed Turner Field crowd of 42,543 on Memorial Day relished a 9-3 win over Philadelphia just a month after a nine-game losing streak had the Braves in last place in the NL East.

The players were long gone by the time the Beach Boys broke into “Good Vibrations” in a post-game concert, but they sure felt them earlier.

One Brave, in particular, was waxing nostalgic for the days when first place wasn’t so uncommon. Chipper Jones kicked off this three-game series against the Phillies with a two-run home run in the first inning, reminiscent of the damage he used to do in division showdowns with the Mets in the late 1990s.

He might not have been wanted to say out loud exactly how good it felt to hit his first home run in six weeks for fear of jinxes or showing up the Phillies. But Jones said as much in a conversation with himself rounding the bases.

“Rounding first I was like, ‘You did exactly what you needed to do in that first at-bat, in the first inning of a game where you’re vying for first place,’” said Jones, who was rewarded with his first left-handed homer of the season and only his third home run overall of the year.

“…There’s not really a prouder moment you can have, going out and leading by example,” Jones continued. “It’s always been what I tried to do. It was a big monkey off my back because I haven’t seen a ball go out of the ballpark in quite some time.”

The two-run lead became three by the time Eric Hinske singled with two outs in the first inning, and the Braves turned it into a six-run lead with another three-run outburst in the third inning. But that one swing by Jones was looking like a sizeable blow against the Phillies, who had been shut out five times in their past eight games.

The cushion allowed Tommy Hanson a couple of innings to get his bearings. He used double plays in each of the first two innings to work out of walk-infested jams, then settled in to retire 12 of 13 batters from the third through sixth innings.

Hanson allowed only one run on three hits in 6 2/3 innings for his first win in four career starts against the Phillies and his longest outing against them.

“I was pulling off a little bit on all my pitches, so I just tried to keep my line and go straight toward home plate and get on top of all my pitches,” said Hanson, who has battled his command in his last three starts. “Once I started doing that I started hitting my spots and throwing a lot more strikes.”

Manager Bobby Cox pulled Hanson after he gave up a double to Raul Ibanez on his 109th pitch with two outs in the seventh inning. It set off a chain reaction of three more consecutive two-out doubles off reliever Peter Moylan. But Jonny Venters got the Braves out of the inning to hold the Phillies at 6-3.

Then Troy Glaus finished what Jones started. His three-run home run on the first pitch from reliever Chad Durban gave him 28 RBIs in May and put the finishing touches on an offensive outpouring from the Braves.

The Braves’ nine runs Monday were two more than they’d scored in each of their first two series losses to the Phillies – seven each on April 20-22 and May 7-9.

Since the last time they played the Phillies, the Braves have gone 16-4 and made up six games in the standings, and they are now riding a season-high six-game winning streak to first place. In that time, the Phillies are 9-10 and out of first place for the first time since May 1.

“Teams who win divisions catch a lot of teams at bad times,” Jones said. “You’ve got to take advantage of those opportunities.”