Braves wallop Cardinals again

ST. LOUIS -- A few days ago, Bobby Cox would have laughed at comparisons between his sub-.500 Atlanta Braves to a 1930 New York Yankees team that featured Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig, and he had never even heard of the Boston Beaneaters.

Now he knows all about those long-ago offensive juggernauts, because his Braves, though they're still four games below .500, have been matching them.

Andruw Jones was 5-for-5 with two homers and matched his career high with six RBIs, helping the Braves become the first team since the 1930 Yankees to score 10 or more runs in five straight games with a 14-5 victory over the St. Louis Cardinals on Tuesday night.

Adam LaRoche, Chipper Jones and Brian McCann also homered for the Braves, who have scored 65 runs during an offensive explosion that includes two 15-run games. The last time the franchise reached double figures in five straight games was in 1897, when the Braves were called the Beaneaters and they totaled 61 runs.

"The Beaneaters keep popping up every afternoon," Cox said. "Way back. I wasn't around then. It's kind of strange to be talking about those kinds of records, at all."

The 65 runs in five games is the best by the franchise since those same Beaneaters totaled 78, including 25 in one game and 21 in another, from May 31 to June 3.

The Braves have 81 hits during their five-game run and 98 in their last six, going back to an 8-3 victory over Cincinnati on July 9, the last game before the All-Star break.

Chipper Jones was 2-for-4 to extend his hitting streak to 18 games, all but four multihit efforts. He's batting .534 (39-for-73) during the streak with eight homers and 23 RBIs.

During their six-game winning streak, they've outscored their opponents 77-32 and they've hit 19 homers in the last five games -- the most for the franchise in a five-game span and only two off the major league record set by the 1977 Boston Red Sox and 1999 Cincinnati Reds.

The Cardinals lost 15-3 in the opener of the three-game series on Monday and trailed 13-1 in the fifth Tuesday, a two-game sequence reminiscent of blowout losses to the Chicago White Sox by 20-6 and 13-5 on June 20-21.

St. Louis had won a season-best seven straight before Atlanta came to town.

"Giving up so many runs early, it gave us all kinds of problems as far as winning the game, saving our staff, not being embarrassed, everything," Cardinals manager Tony La Russa said.

Jason Marquis (11-7) was the loser in the 13-5 game against the White Sox, giving up all the runs in five innings. This was almost as bad: 12 runs and 14 hits in five innings from a pitcher who had a chance to take the National League lead in victories.

"They were hitting good pitches, and they were hitting mistake pitches like they should," Marquis said. "We ran into a hot team, and I just wasn't very good tonight."

Marquis, who gave up three homers to hike his NL high to 24, trailed 6-0 before getting his first at-bat in the third inning.

The Braves scored in each of the first six innings, beginning with Andruw Jones' two-run shot in the first, his 23rd of the season. They scored three in the second, one in the third, two in the fourth and fifth and three in the sixth before Adam Wainwright set down the side in order in the seventh.

"We're just swinging the bat the way we're supposed to," Andruw Jones said. "Everybody is doing something. You look at the lineup, everybody is on base or driving somebody in."

Andruw Jones is 7-for-10 against Marquis, his former teammate on the Braves, with four home runs and 11 RBIs.

"That's my numbers?" Jones asked. "I just feel comfortable at the plate, and I see the ball good."

Tim Hudson, starting on three days' rest for only the second time in his career, won for the first time in seven starts. Hudson (7-8) retired the first 11 hitters and allowed five runs and seven hits in 5 2/3 innings for his first victory since June 10 at Houston.

He had been 0-4 with a 7.71 ERA in the six starts since then.

"It's been a lot of fun to sit in the dugout and watch these guys do what they've been doing," Hudson said. "It's even more fun pitching behind them."

Scott Rolen had an RBI double, pinch-hitter John Rodriguez had a two-run triple and Scott Spiezio had an RBI triple in the sixth in a stretch of three at-bats that chased Hudson. Jim Edmonds hit his 13th homer in the fifth.

Noteworthy

* LaRoche singled and homered in his first two at-bats, giving him six straight hits and making him 10-for-13 against St. Louis this season. He was 0-for-2 with a walk the rest of the way.

* Before the game, the Braves led the majors with a .350 average, 113 runs and 31 homers this month. They totaled 94 runs in the entire month of June while going 6-21.

* Andruw Jones has 33 career multihomer games, three this year. His other six-RBI game was April 18, 1999, against Colorado.