Big night for Chipper, Smoltz, and the Braves

Following a closed door meeting before tonight's game, Chipper Jones went 4-for-4 with a double and two homers, and John Smoltz recorded 10 strikeouts in five dominating innings, to lead the Atlanta Braves to a much needed 8-0 victory over the Florida Marlins at Dolphin Stadium Thursday Night. Chipper, Mark Texiera and Brian McCann hit back to back to back homers in the top of the fifth to put the game out of reach. It was the first time the Braves hit three consecutive home runs since May, 2003, when Rafael Furcal, Mark DeRosa and Gary Sheffield performed the feat.
Chipper is now leading the National League in hitting with a .443 average. This was the 37th multi-homer game in his career.

In improving his record to 3-0 this year, Smoltzie lowered his ERA to a miniscule 0.56. This start has been in spite him having to battle tightness in his shoulder. John is now 4 strikeouts away from 3,000 in his career. ESPN reported that Smoltz was the first pitcher since 1900 (that is not a typo) to pitch exactly five shutout innings with ten strikeouts in a win.