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Joneses, Braves do in Nationals

Apr 12, 2007 - 3:40 AM ATLANTA (Ticker) -- All the Atlanta Braves needed were a couple of swings by Chipper and Andruw Jones to do the job.

Chuck James pitched six strong innings and Chipper Jones and Andruw Jones homered in the same game for the 56th time as the Braves beat the Washington Nationals, 8-3.

Edgar Renteria had three hits and Chipper Jones added two and scored twice for Atlanta (7-1), which is off to its best start since beginning its 1995 World Championship season with the same record.

In the bottom of the first, Chipper Jones belted his first homer on a 3-2 pitch against Jerome Williams over the right field wall, collecting his first RBIs of the season to give Atlanta a 2-0 lead.

"I don't want to wait that long again," Chipper Jones said of his homer and RBI drought. "I'll take it. It was just a matter of time before I got a good swing on something. I got the homer and RBI at the same time."

With two outs in the seventh inning, Renteria and Chipper Jones singled before Andruw Jones hammered an offering by reliever Ryan Wagner deep into the left field seats to increase the lead to 5-0.

"I think it was just a mistake pitch and I had a good swing on it," said Andruw Jones, who was batting just .154 with a homer and two RBIs prior to this one. "I'm still feeling like I'm giving away at-bats and not having rhythm and balance at the plate."

Atlanta improved to an astounding 50-6 when both Joneses homer in the same game.

The runs were enough for James (2-0), who yielded just five hits and three walks while striking out five in six scoreless innings.

"I didn't have my best stuff," James said. "I lucked out and they hit it right at guys. I definitely need to pound the strike zone."

Williams (0-2) allowed two runs, four hits and four walks in five innings and struck out four .

Ronnie Belliard and Ryan Church each had three hits and Belliard drove in two runs in the three-run eighth for Washington off Atlanta reliever Rafael Soriano. The runs were the first allowed by Soriano this season and snapped a 23-inning scoreless streak by Atlanta pitchers.

"The hits felt pretty good," Belliard said. "But it doesn't matter if you lose."

Church also drove in a run in the eighth for Washington, which snapped a 17-inning scoreless streak and matched its run total from its last four games combined in the frame.

"It was a good time to break out of the scoring slump," Nationals manager Manny Acta, said. "Things were going bad, so it feels good."

Atlanta answered back with three runs in the bottom of the frame. Kelly Johnson drove in two runs with a double and Renteria capped the scoring with an RBI single to build the Atlanta lead back to five.

Washington, which is off to its worst start in franchise history since the 1998 Montreal Expos began the season with an identical 1-8 record, held a 20-minute team meeting after the loss.

"I'm not a big meeting type of guy," Acta said. "But I thought it was the right time. The meeting was reassuring. I didn't raise my voice that high."

Felipe Lopez had two hits for the Nationals, who have trailed by at least three runs in every game they've played this season.