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Jones, Davies lead Braves to easy win over Mets

May 23, 2007 - 6:45 AM ATLANTA (Ticker) -- Andruw Jones and Kyle Davies helped continue the Atlanta Braves' dominance of the New York Mets.

Jones snapped out of an 0-for-14 slump with an RBI single in the second inning and Davies hurled eight solid innings and homered to power the Braves to an 8-1 rout of the Mets.

Atlanta returned from a disappointing 4-6 road trip that dropped them 2 1/2 games behind first-place New York in the National League East Division. But luckily for the Braves, the Mets were coming to town.

Having taken four of six against their archrival, the Braves had won two out of three in both series in New York and Atlanta. Facing former teammate Jorge Sosa (3-1), Jeff Francoeur and Jones wasted no time making it five of seven.

"Every game against the Mets is big," Davies said. "We don't want to fall too far behind. We need to do whatever we can against them right now."

Brian McCann led off the second with a single and scored when the red-hot Francoeur, who batted .533 (8-for-15) with a homer in the weekend series with Boston, laced a double down the right field line.

That brought up the slumping Jones, who was dropped from his customary cleanup spot to sixth in the lineup by Braves manager Bobby Cox on Sunday after batting just .139 (5-for-36) on the trip to see his average slide to a paltry .212.

Hampered by a sore back, Jones capped the trip in rather embarrassing fashion by becoming the first Atlanta Brave since David Justice in 1993 to strike out five times in one game on Sunday.

But the 2005 Silver Slugger Award winner spent the off-day on Monday working on his swing at his batting cage in his Duluth, Georgia home. The work paid dividends as Jones ripped the first pitch from Sosa to center field, plating Francoeur for a 2-0 advantage.

"I was flowing forward," Jones said of his struggles. "I was not sitting back on my back side. I worked on it Monday and it worked out today."

That would be all the run support that Davies (2-2) would need. The righthander allowed one run and six hits, struck out three and walked two in eight innings to improve to 4-2 lifetime against New York.

"Kyle's on a pretty nice roll," Cox said. "He's changing speeds with his curveball and his fastball is starting to run with good movement."

Davies threw 109 pitches - 68 strikes - en route to his longest outing of the season. Davies helped his own cause by smashing a two-out, three-run homer to dead center field off Mets reliever Aaron Sele in the sixth for an 8-1 edge.

"I can hit a little bit," joked Davies, who played Little League ball with Francoeur. "(Francoeur) batted third and I batted fourth. I was a hitter."

It was the first hit in 14 at bats this season for Davies, who has five hits in his major league career. Two of them are homers.

"Kyle could rake it as a kid," Francoeur admitted. "I'll give it to him. He was one of the best 13-year old hitters I've ever seen. ... Times change. Now he's a pitcher. Once in a blue moon, he can hit one."

In his first start back at Turner Field, Sosa struggled. Signed by the Mets in the offseason and inserted into the starting rotation after Orlando Hernandez was placed on the disabled list, Sosa reverted to his 2005 form in which he was 13-3 with a 2.55 ERA in 44 games with Atlanta, winning his first three decisions with the Mets and not allowing more than two runs in each of his first three outings.

But the righthander looked more like the pitcher who was 3-10 with a 5.46 ERA in 26 games with Atlanta last season in this one, allowing five runs and six hits in four innings, striking out four and walking three.

"You have to give credit to the Braves; they were hitting my pitches," said Sosa through a translator. "I feel down on myself because I let the team down, especially having Atlanta behind us. I know it was a big game for us."

Pinch hitter Dave Newhan accounted for New York's lone run with a fielder's choice in the fifth.

Chipper Jones and McCann each drove in a run in the third and first baseman Scott Thorman homered in the fourth for Atlanta, which has not dropped a series at home this season.