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Morton sharp in debut as Braves top Angels

Jun 15, 2008 - 4:57 AM ANAHEIM, California (Ticker) -- A pair of new faces helped the Atlanta Braves pick up a rare road victory.

Charlie Morton pitched six effective frames in his major league debut and Brandon Jones had three hits and his first career home run as the Braves posted a 6-3 triumph over the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim on Saturday.

Kelly Johnson also homered for Atlanta, which will look to complete its first sweep away from Turner Field this season on Sunday.

"It was a good overall game for us tonight," Braves manager Bobby Cox said. "We got good pitching and timely hits."

The 24-year-old Morton (1-0), who was recalled from Class AAA Richmond earlier in the day, yielded three runs on five hits and a walk with four strikeouts over his 104-pitch outing.

"Just exciting to get a chance to pitch up here," Morton said. "I just wanted to be attacking their hitters and make pitches."

The Braves rallied for four runs in the fifth after consecutive singles by rookies Greg Norton, Jones and Gregor Blanco loaded the bases with no outs. Yunel Escobar then delivered a two-run single, Teixeira drove in a run when he was hit by a pitch and Brian McCann added a run-scoring base hit.

"Ervin (Santana) threw a breaking ball that hit Teixeira for an easy run," Angels manager Mike Scioscia said. "I thought he had better stuff than his line shows."

Jones and Johnson both homered in the sixth to extend the advantage to 6-2.

"It was an unbelievable feeling running the bases," said Jones, who was playing in his third career major league contest. "I'm just taking it in and just happy to be here."

The Braves, who still own the majors' worst road record at 9-24, plated three more runs in the eighth. Teixeira capped the rally with a two-run single that gave Atlanta a 9-3 edge.

Maicer Izturis extended his hitting streak to 13 games with a two-run single in the third inning for the Angels, who had won nine of their previous 11 contests before dropping back-to-back games to the Braves.

Santana (8-3) gave up six runs on nine hits and two walks with six strikeouts over 5 2/3 innings.

"I felt good out there," Santana said. "Just made some bad pitches in situations and they took advantage of them."