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Jurrjens impressive as Braves blank Blue Jays

Jun 28, 2008 - 4:30 AM TORONTO (Ticker) -- Rookie Jair Jurrjens was just six years old when long-time friends Bobby Cox and Cito Gaston first managed against each other. On Friday, it was the 22-year-old righthander who looked like he was playing with kids.

Jurrjens tossed a career-high eight strong frames, sending the Atlanta Braves to a 4-0 win over the Toronto Blue Jays.

Acquired from Detroit Tigers over the offseason in the Edgar Renteria trade, Jurrjens (8-3), who hasn't surrendered an earned run over his last 24 innings, faced just two batters over the minimum, allowing just three hits and one walk with three strikeouts.

"He was just about as good as Jesse (Litsch) was last night," said Gaston, referring to his own young pitcher who held the Cincinnati Reds to one run and three hits over eight innings on Thursday. "We couldn't get anything going tonight."

Cox, who is in his 28th season and has seen the likes of Greg Maddux, Tom Glavine and John Smoltz work their magic on the mound during his 4,103 games as a major league manager, was quite complimentary of his young hurler.

"I don't think you can pitch better than that," Cox said. "That's one of the best games I've seen pitched ever."

Gaston, in his second stint as Toronto's manager after replacing the fired John Gibbons last Friday, faced Cox for the first time since 1997 - the last of his eight seasons during his first tour of duty with the Blue Jays, which included back-to-back World Series titles in 1992-93.

The first of those championships came at the expense of a Braves' team led by Cox, who once hired Gaston to be his hitting coach during his stint as Toronto's manager from 1982-85.

Mark Teixeira homered and finished with three RBI, continuing his recent assault on American League pitching. In his last interleague game on Sunday vs. the Seattle Mariners, the Braves' slugger belted three homers and drove in four runs.

Teixeira provided all the offensive support Jurrjens required in the first inning when he pounded a low slider from Dustin McGowan (6-6) into the right-field seats of Rogers Centre for a two-run home run, his 15th of the season.

"It was an OK pitch; I (would have liked) for it to be a little more in," McGowan said. "He (Teixeira) is a good hitter and he gets paid to do that."

In his next at-bat in the third, Teixeira added an insurance run when he lofted a fly ball just out of the reach of center fielder Vernon Wells for a two-out RBI double that scored Greg Blanco all the way from first base.

"I think it's always nice to get a couple of runs early," Teixeira said. "J.J. (Jurrjens) was awesome tonight. He didn't need much (help) but he was incredible tonight."

Blanco accounted for the final run in the seventh when he plated rookie Brandon Jones with a run-scoring single.

McGowan took the loss, surrendering all four runs and eight hits over 7 1/3 innings.