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Harris' six hits buoy Braves past Cards

Jul 22, 2007 - 3:58 AM ATLANTA (Ticker) -- Journeyman Willie Harris had a night to remember.

Harris had tied a franchise record with six hits and drove in a career-high six runs to power the Atlanta Braves to a 14-6 rout of the St. Louis Cardinals on Saturday.

The 29-year-old Harris already had a productive night through the first two frames.

In the first inning, Harris had a single, stolen base and came around to score on Brian McCann's single. Harris then smashed an RBI single and scored on Chipper Jones' double in the second.

Harris, who did not have an extra-base hit since June 9, laced a two-run triple off St. Louis starter Braden Looper into the right-centerfield gap to give Atlanta a 6-1 edge.

Harris did himself one better in his fourth at-bat by clearing the bases with a bases-loaded triple off reliever Troy Percival in the fourth. In doing so, he became the first Brave since Andruw Jones to collect six RBIs in one game.Jones accomplished the feat on July 18, 2006.

Harris matched another personal milestone, collecting his fifth hit with a single in the sixth before capping his 6-for-6 night with a single in the eighth.

"You have bad games, everybody's going to have bad games," said Harris, who had just three hits in his last 21 at-bats coming into this one. "You go home and you think about it and you try to fix it. I had no idea I could fix it like that today."

"Going 6-for-6 is extra hard to do," Braves manager Bobby Cox said. "I bet there hadn't been 10 recently in the last 50 or 60 years."

The six hits tied a franchise record, set seven times, last by Felix Millan against San Francisco on July 6, 1970.

"I wasn't even born yet," Harris said. "It was so much fun to be a part of it. I really don't know how to describe it."

It was also the first time a player has recorded six hits at Turner Field since Cal Ripken was 6-for-6 on June 13, 1999.

"It was pretty awesome," Chipper Jones said. "The only time I saw someone go 6-for-6 was when Cal Ripken did it a couple of years back. (Harris has) been struggling. Tonight, he got it started in the leadoff role and spurred our offense."

Harris played with Ripken in his first season in the majors in 2001.

"I had an opportunity to play with Cal Ripken when he was having his celebrations (in his final season)," Harris said. "He told me, 'Good luck, hopefully you can play 25 years.' Cal Ripken was a great, great person. He taught me a lot."

Harris' previous best was five hits, which he set against Kansas City on August 10, 2004 when he was with the Chicago White Sox.

Harris, a Georgia native, had played eight seasons in the Orioles, White Sox and Red Sox organizations before signing a minor-league deal with his hometown Braves in the offseason. He had never drove in more than two runs a game.

"I like to say I was just lucky today," Harris said. "I'm just thankful for the day and am going to enjoy it. Days like this don't come around often." Harris, who factored in 10 of Atlanta's 14 runs, gave fellow journeyman Buddy Carlyle (5-2) more than enough run support.

Making his first start against the Cardinals, the righthanded Carlyle surrendered three runs and seven hits in six innings to improved to 4-0 with a 2.25 ERA in over his last five starts.

"I was OK," Carlyle said. "Sometimes it's hard to pitch when you're getting a long break between innings and scoring runs. It's difficult to get into a rhythm."

Carlyle has played for 18 different professional clubs in the majors and minors since 1996.

Carlyle also helped out at the plate with two hits, three runs scored and three RBI.

Chipper Jones capped Atlanta's scoring with his 16th homer of the season in Atlanta's seven-run fourth.

Looper (7-8) allowed seven runs and 10 hits, walked one and struck out three in 2 2/3 frames - the shortest outing for the righthander since he was converted to a starter at the beginning of the season.

"Basically, I pretty much stunk," Looper said. "I wasn't able to get the ball down and every time, they took advantage of it."

Looper's outing continued a brutal stretch for Cardinals' pitchers, who have surrendered a whopping 72 runs to the Braves over their last seven contests. St. Louis has allowed 14 or more runs in four of those games.

"If we had those pitches to hit (tonight), we would have scored in double figures," St. Louis manager Tony LaRussa said. "The ball was in the middle of the plate. Looper just had a tough time making pitches."

Eric Duncan homered and drove in three runs for the Cardinals.