Chipper sees batting average continue to dip

St. Louis — Chipper Jones needed to look only at the scoreboard at Busch Stadium the past two days to see his lead in the National League batting race shrinking rapidly.

Lineups for St. Louis and its opponent are posted side-by-side, each player’s updated average next to his name. With Jones and surging Cardinals slugger Albert Pujols both batting third, everyone in the park saw the race tightening.

Twelve days ago, Jones was hitting .370 and had a 22-point lead over Colorado’s Matt Holliday, with Pujols a point behind Holliday at .347.

After Pujols was 3-for-3 Friday, then had two doubles and a home run through five innings Saturday, Jones’ lead stood at three points, .360-.357.

Jones singled in his next at-bat and finished the day with two hits and a .360 average to Pujols’ .356. (Holliday was third at .342 entering Saturday).

“I’m scuffling bad,” said Jones, who had a .262 average and only three extra-base hits (one home run) in his past 25 games before Saturday, after batting .388 with 33 extra-base hits (18 homers) in his first 77 games.

“I’ve got to get it back. I really struggling with my mechanics [hitting] left-handed,” said the switch-hitter. “Until I get that straightened out, I’m going to be scratching to get a hit.”

Acosta off disabled list

Reliever Manny Acosta was activated from the disabled list Saturday after missing 39 games with a strained left hamstring.

Right-hander Matt DeSalvo was sent back to Class AAA Richmond. He was told after arriving at Busch Stadium on Saturday, some 14 hours after he gave up eight hits and six runs in one inning of Friday’s 18-3 drubbing against St. Louis.

DeSalvo was up for a week and made two appearances in which he allowed 11 hits, seven runs and two walks in two innings.

The Braves hope Acosta’s time on the DL not only allowed his leg to heal, but perhaps rejuvenated his arm.

When other relievers were injured, they leaned heavily on the slender rookie early, and Acosta responded well, posting a 2.73 ERA and .217 opponents’ average in 28 appearances through June 2, with 22 strikeouts in 29-2/3 innings.

But in his next 13 appearances before the injury, he had a 6.23 ERA and .318 opponents’ average, with only three strikeouts (and 11 walks) in 17-1/3 innings.

Long night for Morton, Braves

The only thing worse for rookie Charlie Morton than allowing five hits, four runs and five walks while recording four outs Friday, was having to watch his teammates take a beating the rest of the night.

“That kind of thing sets the tone for the rest of the game,” said Morton, who threw 25 strikes in 57 pitches and was pulled after walking Troy Glaus with the bases loaded, the seventh batter in eight to reach base in the second inning. “I go an inning and a third. Definitely sets the tone for the game.”

It was the briefest of his 13 major-league starts, and a reminder of how much work Morton (3-8) has to do before he’s a quality big-league pitcher.

He’s 1-6 with a 6.82 ERA in his past seven starts, with 34 hits and 25 runs allowed in 33 innings, and almost as many walks (21) as strikeouts (24).

The Cardinals’ 26 hits Friday were a franchise high since 1930, and equaled the most hits by an NL team in a non extra-innings game since 2000.

The 18 runs were the most the Cardinals have scored in three seasons since new Busch Stadium opened. They did it without a home run, the first time a St. Louis team scored that many runs without a homer in research going back to 1954.

“A ball [hit by the Cardinals] never hit the warning track all night,” Braves manager Bobby Cox said Saturday, reflecting on the game. “That’s impossible.”

St. Louis hit .591 (26-for-44). The last team to hit for a higher average was Boston in a July 2003 game against Florida, when the Red Sox were 28-for-46 (.609) and Johnny Damon had a single, double and triple in the first inning.

Ohman hits rough stretch

Will Ohman, who leads the majors with 69 relief appearances, has allowed six hits and five runs while recording just three outs in his past six games. He gave up eight hits and two runs in 19-1/3 innings during his previous 23 games.