MLB
  Scores
  Schedules
  Standings
  Statistics
  Transactions
  Injuries: AL | NL
  Players
  Weekly Lineup
  Message Board
  Minor Leagues
  MLB Stat Search

Clubhouses

Sport Sections
  Tuesday, Sep. 5 7:40pm ET
Chipper's two homers alone beat Unit
 
  RECAP | BOX SCORE | GAME LOG

ATLANTA (AP) -- If Tom Glavine wins another Cy Young award, he may remember this game as a real vote-getter.

Chipper Jones
Chipper Jones (left) called it lucky, but he also had a keen eye and wicked bat against Randy Johnson on Tuesday. Jones hit two homers in Atlanta's win.

The Atlanta Braves' left-hander became the NL's first 19-game winner in a showdown between the two leading Cy Young candidates, recovering from a tortuous first inning to beat Arizona and Randy Johnson 5-2 Tuesday night.

"It's fun," said Glavine, who allowed only five hits and one earned run in seven innings. "It means you're doing something right, or people wouldn't be talking about it. As a pitcher, you look forward to these kinds of matchups."

Johnson (17-6) struck out 11 in six innings but gave up three homers -- including a pair of two-run shots to Chipper Jones. The Big Unit is only 2-4 with a 3.75 ERA since starting in the All-Star game.

Cy Young battle?
Tom Glavine has two more wins than Randy Johnson, but he can thank his teammates for better run support. A look at the complete numbers says Johnson has been the superior pitcher:
  Johnson Glavine
W-L 17-6 19-6
ERA 2.45 3.61
IP 216.2 207
CG 8 3
Hits 167 191
BB 63 59
SO 299 130
OAVG .214 .244
OOBP .277 .297
OSLG .347 .367
Run support 4.86 6.04

"I feel like I'm pitching good," he said. "The velocity is right where it was at the beginning of the year. You've got to give the opposition some credit, too."

The Braves won for only the fourth time in 12 games and kept a one-game lead over New York in the NL East. The Mets won 3-2 at Cincinnati to move five games ahead of Arizona in the wild card race.

"I don't want to put too much on one game," said Johnson, who left the game one strikeout shy of his fourth 300-K season. "But this is the last month. Every pitch is important, every at-bat is important. I wish I could have a couple of pitches back."

Glavine (19-6) kept Arizona off balance with a baffling barrage of changeups and carefully placed fastballs -- none clocked faster than the upper 80s. He won for the 12th time in 13 decisions and kept himself in contention for the third Cy Young of his career, even though his ERA (3.61) is more than a run higher than Johnson's (2.45).

Johnson seemed to have a lock on winning that award for the second year in a row after reaching the All-Star break at 14-2 with a 1.80 ERA. But he hasn't been nearly as dominating in the second half, making critical mistakes at the most inopportune times.

Jones, who was hitting only .259 since the All-Star break, went the opposite way on a 3-2 fastball in the first inning, hitting a towering fly that landed in the front row of the right-field seats for a two-run homer. Then, with the game tied 2-2 in the fifth, the Braves went back-to-back against Johnson.

Glavine led off with a walk but Johnson retired the next two hitters. He got two quick strikes on Jones, needing one more to escape the inning still tied.

Instead, Jones pounced on a terrible pitch -- a hanging slider that curled right over the inside corner -- and golfed it into the left-field seats for another two-run homer, his 32nd of the season. It was the third time the switch-hitter had homered twice in a game from the right side, the first coming exactly one year earlier -- against Johnson.

"He's a good hitter, and when you make a mistake to a good hitter, they usually hit it out," Johnson said.

Two pitches later, Andres Galarraga sent a high, outside pitch over the right-field wall for his 26th homer and a three-run cushion.

"It's just guessing right," said Jones, who has five career homers off Johnson. "The guy has such devastating stuff, you have to just sit on something (until) he throws something you can hit."

The long ball provided more than enough support for Glavine, who has almost single-handedly prevented the Braves' late-summer doldrums from turning into a full-fledged slump. He improved to 9-1 when pitching after an Atlanta loss, including a 6-0 run since Aug. 4.

John Rocker pitched 1 1/3 scoreless innings for his 19th save, getting the final out in both the eighth and ninth with two runners on.

In the eighth, Greg Colbrunn hit a slow roller left of the mound, which Rocker fielded before throwing a strike to first from his knees. Rocker struck out the side in the ninth.

Arizona went ahead with an unearned run in a laborious first, when Glavine needed 18 minutes and 37 pitches to get three outs. He had Tony Womack picked off, but Galarraga made a bad throw from first that sent Womack all the way to third. He scored on a sacrifice fly by Luis Gonzalez.

"I felt good in the first inning," Glavine said. "I wasn't worried about it. When you come out of such an inning with only a one-run deficit, it's not bad."

Colbrunn hit his 11th homer leading off the fourth to make it 2-2.

Game notes
Colbrunn has hit safely in 16 of his last 17 games, including seven in a row. ... The Braves have hit back-to-back homers five times this season. The last came on July 4, when Andruw Jones and Chipper Jones went deep against Montreal. ... Despite the pitching matchup, only 29,722 turned out at Turner Field -- third-smallest crowd of the year. ... Johnson has at least 10 strikeouts in 21 of his 30 starts this season, 146 in his career. ... The Diamondbacks made four errors, the Braves three. ... Atlanta's Reggie Sanders struck out four straight times swinging.
 


ALSO SEE
Baseball Scoreboard

Arizona Clubhouse

Atlanta Clubhouse


RECAPS
Boston 10
Oakland 3

Cleveland 7
Tampa Bay 4

Detroit 7
Anaheim 5

Seattle 4
Toronto 3

Texas 2
Chi. White Sox 1

NY Yankees 10
Kansas City 5

Baltimore 6
Minnesota 5

NY Mets 3
Cincinnati 2

Atlanta 5
Arizona 2

Houston 9
Florida 5

St. Louis 7
Montreal 6

Colorado 10
Chicago Cubs 2

San Diego 3
Milwaukee 1

Pittsburgh 8
Los Angeles 0

San Francisco 8
Philadelphia 5

AUDIO/VIDEO
video
 The Baseball Tonight crew breaks down the Braves win over the Diamondbacks.
RealVideo:  | 28.8

audio
 Tom Glavine says he faced the D-Backs, not Randy Johnson.
wav: 108 k
RealAudio: 14.4 | 28.8 | 56.6

 Chipper Jones says it's feast or famine against Randy Johnson.(Courtesy TBS Sports)
wav: 237 k
RealAudio: 14.4 | 28.8 | 56.6

 Chipper Jones says hitting Randy Johnson takes luck.
wav: 109 k
RealAudio: 14.4 | 28.8 | 56.6