Major League Baseball

Braves rally to beat Marlins
Chipper homers, Norton delivers for another home victory


The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Published on: 06/03/08

For most of Tuesday night it looked like the Braves would be Uggla'd much the way they were Bruce'd last weekend in Cincinnati.

Then they remembered they were at Turner Field, where the Braves usually win — even in close games.

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Chipper Jones hit his 399th home run, and Greg Norton's two-run double in the eighth inning lifted them to a 5-4 victory against the Florida Marlins and Dan Uggla, the first time the Braves have won after trailing through seven innings.

"Since it's kind of a comedy with me out in left field, I'm trying to drive in more [runs] than I give up," cracked the defensively challenged Norton, who hit a hard bouncer down the first-base line to put the Braves ahead 5-4.

"I'm sure my son will be glad I got a hit tonight. I'm tired of telling him I didn't get any."

Their 17th win in the past 20 home games moved the Braves to within one game of second-place Florida in the National League East standings. Atlanta is 3 1/2 games behind division leader Philadelphia.

Dan Uggla had two homers off Braves starter Jorge Campillo, who had his first rough game and was lifted after giving up four runs and six hits in four innings. He's had finger blisters, but Cox took him out Tuesday not because of blisters, but because the Braves needed to pinch-hit and try to score.

The bullpen came through big. Three relievers cranked out five scoreless innings, including three innings of one-hit ball with four strikeouts by Jeff Bennett and an overpowering ninth inning by Rafael Soriano for his second save.

They watched Jay Bruce and the Reds celebrate come-from-behind wins against them in Cincinnati, but it was the Braves reveling in that powerful comeback vibe the past two nights against the Marlins.

On Monday, they won the series opener 7-5 on Yunel Escobar's 10th-inning home run, after John Smoltz blew a save in the ninth inning.

"The last two games haven't been pretty, haven't been textbook wins," Jones said. "But we got the job done. If we ever figure out a way to get the job done on the road, we're going to be headed to the top of the division."

The Braves are 24-7 at home, tied with Tampa Bay for second-most home wins in the majors behind the Chicago Cubs (26-8). On the road, however, the Braves are 7-21, the fewest road wins in the NL.

Tuesday was the kind of game they've lost so often on the road, where their opponent seems to get the kind of barely-fair hit that Norton got in the eighth inning, or the single that Jones dropped in to start the inning.

Mark Teixeira kept up his recent surge with a double after Jones' leadoff hit to put the potential tying and go-ahead runs into scoring position, and Norton drove them both in to draw a roar of approval from a crowd of 25,476.

"We needed to do something like that," Braves manager Bobby Cox said of the come-from-behind win. "We've had chances."

It was only the third win in 19 one-run games for the Braves.

Jones' three-run homer off Burke Badenhop in the first inning moved Jones past former Braves great Dale Murphy into a tie for 43rd on the all-time home-run list with Al Kaline and Andres Galarraga.

"I don't even think about that kind of stuff until it's brought up," said Jones, who went 2-for-4 to raise his majors-leading average two points to .409. "Then it makes me blush. Those are three pretty big names to be mentioned with."

He needs one homer to become the fourth active player with at least a .300 career average, 400 homers and 1,300 RBIs. The others are Alex Rodriguez, Manny Ramirez and Frank Thomas.

He could also have the heady distinction of hitting his 400th homer while carrying a plus-.400 batting average more than two months into a season.

Jones' two hits Tuesday moved him past Eddie Mathews into second place on the franchise hits list with 2,202, trailing Hank Aaron (3,600).

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