Braves' bats help pitching for a change

By Carroll Rogers

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

MIAMI — Beating the Marlins 8-6 on Wednesday night felt like victory to just about everybody in the Braves clubhouse but the pitcher who got one.

But Derek Lowe could smile after the Braves' offensive surge to start the game provided enough cushion for his worst start of the year.

"I can't look J.J. in the eyes right now because he's pitching fantastic," said Lowe who gave up six runs and moved to 4-1, while Jair Jurrjens is 2-2 despite a 1.89 ERA. "... This was an offensive victory. But you look at our road trip coming up. We need victories any way we can get them."

The Braves snapped a four-game losing streak by taking the first game of an eight-day road trip — all against NL East opponents.

Looking for something to build on, the Braves could take the first three RBIs of the season from cleanup hitter Garret Anderson, who was in his second game back from the disabled list.

"I'm just happy to be out there playing," Anderson said. "The other stuff will take care of itself."

He drove in two key runs in a four-run second inning after the Marlins had pitched around Chipper Jones to load the bases. Jones added a two-run bases loaded single an inning later to help the Braves take an 8-3 lead on Graham Taylor, a pitcher three starts removed from Class AA Jacksonville.

"We'll take it any way we can get it right now," Chipper Jones said. "I know that Taylor's filling in for [Andrew] Miller. But bottom line is our job is to go out there and beat whoever shows up."

Lowe, meanwhile, interrupted a perfectly good game on offense for the Braves to give up a season-high six runs, five of them off the bat of Marlins cleanup hitter Jorge Cantu.

Cantu hit a three-run home run off Lowe in the first inning and was just getting warmed up. Cantu doubled in runs in each of his next two at-bats to make it a perfect 3-for-3 against Lowe. He is 7-for-8 against Lowe for his career.

"I need to call [Tim] Wakefield in Boston and come up with a knuckleball for the next time I face him, see if that'll work," Lowe said.

The second of Cantu's doubles keyed a two-out two-run fifth inning for the Marlins, which closed the gap to 8-6.

Cantu's five RBIs tied his career-high and nearly erased the work the Braves started in an eight-run barrage over the first three innings.

Buddy Carlyle, who came on in relief of Lowe, pitched his way into and out of a jam with runners first and third in the sixth inning. He, Peter Moylan, Rafael Soriano and Mike Gonzalez rescued Lowe by holding the Marlins scoreless.

"It was disappointing in my eyes because here we are down 3-1 in the first inning and we find a way to battle back," said Lowe, who gave up seven hits and three walks in five innings, while throwing 101 pitches. "My first six starts I've been throwing way too many pitches for the amount of innings I've pitched. When you're a groundball pitcher, you can't throw 105 pitches in five innings and this is like the third time I've done it."

After Jones' bases-loaded hit off reliever Dan Meyer in the third, the Braves' bats went silent. Marlins relievers held the Braves scoreless — and hitless — for the final six innings. The only baserunners to reach from that point on did so on walks, four of them.

Rookie Jordan Schafer struck out four times for the first time in his career and is now 2-for-20 in his past five games with 14 strikeouts.