Philadelphia — With the Braves approaching the quarter pole of their season, third baseman Chipper Jones is hitting way over .400 and showing no signs of slowing down.

He had his ninth three-hit game Tuesday — no other major-leaguer had seven — to raise his average to .415 before Wednesday night, when Jones hit his 11th home run in the first inning and a double in the third inning. All of baseball is taking notice, and a Sports Illustrated writer was sent to Philadelphia to do a feature story that's set to run in two or three weeks.

Bobby Cox, the only major-league manager that Jones has ever had, said he has never seen the veteran switch-hitter put together a run quite like this, even in Jones' 1999 National League MVP season.

"This is a six-week stretch," Cox said. "I've seen him really good, a week or 10 days where he's on fire. But this has been since Day 1. It's been pretty spectacular."

The last Braves player to hit .400 this late in the season was Ralph Garr in 1971, when he slipped to exactly .400 in the 39th game and below .400 the next day.

Before Wednesday, Jones was 43-for-99 (.434) with nine homers and 22 RBIs in his past 26 games. Since July 5 last season, he had hit .371 (156-for-421) with 34 doubles, 26 homers, 94 RBIs and a .450 on-base percentage in 109 games.

In 221 games since June 24, 2006, he had a .361 average (305-for-844) with 66 doubles, six triples, 58 homers, 184 RBI and a .441 OBP and .660 slugging percentage before Wednesday.

On the road in that long stretch, he had hit .371 with 37 doubles, 30 homers and 89 RBI in 110 games.

Tex returns to lineup

First baseman Mark Teixeira returned to the lineup Wednesday after missing two games with back spasms.

He wasn't in the original lineup posted Wednesday afternoon, but was added after testing his back in hitting, fielding and running drills. When Teixeira came off the field after batting practice, he gave Cox a thumbs-up sign and said he was ready.