Only Snow Stopping Chipper
Only Snow Stopping Chipper
Denver -- Chipper Jones, who will elaborate on any topic, has not been as verbal about what has been transpiring at the fat end of his bat. His loss, for he is missing out on a lovely spring narrative.
Jones homered and drove in four runs Saturday as the Braves overpowered Colorado 11-4 at Coors Field, where it did not snow this time. Denny Neagle (2-1) gave up two runs in the second and then limited the Rockies to two more the rest of the way in a complete-game victory and his third straight win at dreaded Coors.
The victory was Atlanta's fourth straight, its fifth in six games and a triumph against nature, after Friday night's snow-out. The Rockies lost for the eighth time in 10 games, unable to recover from what Jones did to them in his first two at-bats.
The Braves third baseman doubled in a run in the first inning before hitting a three-run homer off Pedro Astacio in the second for a 6-0 lead. That homer, his eighth, tied him with St. Louis' Mark McGwire for the NL lead while giving Jones 22 RBIs, second only to McGwire's 24. And following a baseball code, he is downplaying, for to speak of it is to jinx it.
"It's been a little bit of everything," Jones said. "I worked real hard in the offseason, harder than I probably ever have."
The victory was an atonement of sorts for Neagle, who was handed a six-run lead last Monday in Philadelphia and promptly flushed it down the commode in the club's most stunning loss of the young season. This time, Neagle allowed just four hits in the final seven innings and recorded Atlanta's third complete game in the past four games.
Jones extended his hitting streak to eight games and the homer gave him 11 RBIs in 14 at-bats. Moreover, he enabled the Braves to maintain early offensive pressure, which has benefitted their starting pitching. Taking a 6-2 lead into the fourth, Atlanta has now outscored the opposition 32-9 in the first three innings in the first 16 games.
His homer, coming with two outs, landed in teh second deck of the right field stands. Astacio fell behind 2-0 before putting a fastball over the plate and Jones' shot traveled an estimated 424 feet for his fourth homer in five games.
The Braves clubbed Astacio out of the game in the fifth, after a double by Javy Lopez and Walt Weiss led to a three-run inning and a 9-2 lead. This was hardly anything new for the Rockies, who have watched Astacio give up 24 runs in the 14-2/3 innings since he won his first game.
By Thomas Stinson, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
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