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James, Braves crush Marlins

Jun 30, 2007 - 3:47 AM MIAMI (Ticker) -- Chuck James kept the Florida Marlins' bats in check and helped out with some timely hitting to lift the Atlanta Braves to their fourth straight victory.

James pitched effectively into the seventh inning and hit an RBI double to lead the Braves to a 12-3 victory over the Marlins in the opener of a three-game series on Friday.

Chipper Jones fueled the Braves' offense, which scored 13 runs in their last game against the Washington Nationals, with two hits and four RBI.

James (7-7) allowed just one run and four hits with five strikeouts over 6 2/3 innings. His biggest mistake came in the sixth inning when Mike Jacobs crushed a solo home run to right which ended his bid for a shutout and cut the Braves' advantage to 8-1.

"He did everything he could to win tonight," Braves manager Bobby Cox said. "He pitched beautifully, he threw great. He had a great changeup. The ball that got hit out was a slider we wanted him to throw because he seldom throws it."

The 25-year-old James also helped when he was in the batters' box. James' first extra-base hit of the season, a double to right, plated Scott Thorman and gave Atlanta a 5-0 lead in the fifth inning.

He later scored and added a single in his next at-bat in the sixth.

"I got lucky and ran into a few," James joked. "That's always nice - to get a little dirty when I'm playing. I don't get to do that too much unless I go out there and throw the dirt on myself."

Jones, who also walked three times, had an RBI single in the fifth and a three-run triple in the eighth. The switch-hitter now has five hits and eight RBI in the last two games.

"I'd like to think it was just a matter of time," Jones said. "I'm not going to hit .170 with runners in scoring position the whole season. I'm getting a whole lot of opportunities over the last couple of games, guys in front of me are getting on base and swinging the bat well, and I'm getting some chances."

Atlanta has scored 35 runs on its current four-game winning streak after plating just one in its previous five contests.

"Everything's falling in for us, plus the hard ones," Cox said. "It goes around like that. We played a great game. We did a lot of stuff good."

Jeff Francoeur added four hits and scored three runs for Atlanta, which had lost five in a row before the current streak.

"He had four didn't he?" Cox asked. "Seven in two games. He's going to get his hits. He makes contact really good."

The Braves pounded out 14 hits, and things could have been much worse as they stranded 13 runners on base.

"The run support is amazing," James said. "That helped me a lot (tonight). I was kind of in a groove and then I felt it slipping a little bit. Once you get that kind of run support it makes it a lot easier, takes a lot of stress off."

The Braves took an early lead off Marlins starter Josh Johnson (0-3) when Francoeur's sacrifice fly plated Jones. Kelly Johnson followed with an RBI single to take a 2-0 advantage in the third inning.

Johnson was relieved after hurling 94 pitches in just four innings. The 23-year-old righthander yielded two runs, five hits and five walks with six strikeouts in his longest outing of the season.

"After the first inning, I threw about 20 pitches which is what I didn't want to do," Johnson said. "I got out of that inning, felt good and thought I could take off from there but did the same thing I did in the first inning - throw a lot of pitches."

Johnson had been on the shelf until June 18 due to an injury to his ulnar nerve in his throwing elbow. Since returning, he has looked nothing like the pitcher who led the National League in ERA last year until late summer.

"We have to be patient with him," Marlins manager Fredi Gonzalez said. "We have to run him back out there, his health is fine. It's a disservice and injustice to him to think that after nine months of him not pitching in the major leagues to go back out and be back in his old form."

The Marlins had lost his last two starts by a combined score of 21-7, and he did not make it through four innings in either.

Florida's defense didn't help as well as an error by Dan Uggla allowed a run to score and a ball that he misplayed, and was originally scored an error, let another one in.

Things got so bad for Florida that utility outfielder Jason Wood pitched a perfect ninth, becoming the third Marlins position player in history to pitch joining John Mabry (Oct. 5, 2001 at Atlanta) and John Cangelosi (July 21, 1997 against San Diego).