Chipper's Two Homers Ruin Bucs Opener

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Pittsburgh -- Chipper Jones filled the outfield seats in Three Rivers Stadium even faster than the Pittsburgh Pirates' sellout crowd did.

Jones homered twice in the first three innings, even as some late-arriving fans were settling in for the Pirates' home opener, and Tom Glavine pitched seven shutout innings as Atlanta beat Pittsburgh 11-3 Tuesday night.

For openers, it was more of the same for the Pirates, who have lost their last five home openers.

Jones' homers -- to left field in the first, and into the center-field seats in the third -- were off Jason Schmidt (1-1) and gave Atlanta a 4-0 lead in the third. Jones also walked, singled and reached on a throwing error and drove in five runs in his five plate appearances.

Jones' first homer followed third baseman Freddy Garcia's game-opening, two-base throwing error on Andruw Jones and Curtis Pride's single in the third.

So far, Jones is 13-for-24 -- .542 -- with three homers, all in his last two games. He also homered Sunday against Philadelphia.

Schmidt, briefly part of the Braves' five-man rotation before being dealt to Pittsburgh in August 1996, lasted only four innings, giving up five runs on seven hits and striking out three.

Glavine (1-0) was far more effective in a park where he has only infrequently had success, giving up five hits, striking out five and walking one in beating Pittsburgh for the first time since May 13, 1996.

The lefthander had been 4-8 with a 4.13 lifetime in Three Rivers, and also lost there twice in two National League playoffs starts in 1991 and 1992. He was 0-2 against the Pirates last season.

Pittsburgh threatened in the second following Kevin Young's leadoff double and Jermaine Allensworth's single, but Jose Guillen grounded into a double play and Garcia flied out.

The Pirates ruined the shutout in the ninth with consecutive homers by Guillen and Garcia off 42-year old Dennis Martinez, the Braves' third pitcher. Mike Cather had pitched a scoreless eighth for Atlanta.

Javy Lopez added a two-run homer in a three-run seventh against Elmer Dessens, and the Braves scored three more runs in the eighth off rookie reliever Javier Martinez.

The Pirates played so poorly -- they gave up 14 hits, committed three errors and had a pair of wild pitches -- that about half of the sellout crowd of 43,268 left before a post-game fireworks show.

Notes: Light-hitting shortstop Rafael Belliard, who once played for Pittsburgh, was 3-for-4 with an RBI. He has 122 RBIs in 17 major league seasons, or 18 fewer than teammate Andres Galarraga had with Colorado last season. . . .

Braves infielder Keith Lockhart , batting .556, has a partially torn left rotator cuff and may have to go on the disabled list. The tear was revealed during an MRI on Monday. . . .Atlanta is 5-2 in Pittsburgh the last two seasons but was only 1-4 at home against the Pirates in 1997. . . .Former Penguins star Mario Lemieux drew the biggest cheer of the night by throwing the ceremonial first pitch. . . .The crowd of 43,268 was the largest for a Pirates' home opener since 1994. . . .

Allensworth was out at the plate on Lou Collier 's grounder in the fifth, the eighth time in seven games the Pirates have had a runner thrown out on the bases. . . .The Braves last played in Pittsburgh's home opener in 1963, when they were the Milwaukee Braves.

By Bill Zack

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