ATLANTA - Happy birthday, Chipper Jones.
The Braves slugger celebrated his 36th birthday by going 3-for-3, including a homer, to lead Atlanta past the NL East-leading Florida Marlins 7-4 on Thursday night.
Jones also singled in the fifth, and was walked intentionally in his final at-bat while the crowd booed loudly. He's on one of the hottest tears of his career, raising the best average in the majors to .442, and has seven homers and 20 RBIs.
Chuck James (2-1) allowed four runs in five innings, but lasted long enough for the win. Jorge Campillo pitched two scoreless innings and Manny Acosta worked the final two for his second save.
Josh Willingham homered and drove in all four Florida runs.
Atlanta jumped on rookie Burke Badenhop (0-2) in the first after the Marlins went ahead 1-0 in the top half on Willingham's run-scoring single.
Badenhop, who was born in Atlanta, received a rude homecoming from the Braves.
With one out, Yunel Escobar, Jones and Mark Teixeira hit consecutive singles to tie it up. Brian McCann walked to load the bases, and Jeff Francoeur pulled off a nifty bit of hitting with an opposite-field double just inside the right-field foul line to bring home two more runs. Matt Diaz made it 5-1 with a two-run single right back up the middle.
Badenhop lasted five innings, giving up eight hits and walking one. He didn't strike out anyone.
With his team down by five, Willingham tried to bring the Marlins back. He doubled in a run in the third and followed with his sixth homer of the season in the fifth, a two-run shot that just cleared the left-field wall.
The Braves' defense kept Willingham from a fifth RBI. On his double, left fielder Diaz hit Escobar with a throw from the corner, and the shortstop wheeled around to make a pinpoint relay to catcher McCann for the tag on Jeremy Hermida.
The slow-running McCann gave the Braves some insurance with his first career triple in the eighth. He drove one off the wall in right, the ball bouncing away from Hermida, and flopped into third with something resembling a headfirst slide. Jones nearly buckled over in the dugout, laughing at McCann's inelegant work on the basepaths.
Francoeur followed with a deep drive to center for the sacrifice fly, his third RBI of the game.
Sunday
May 4th, 2025
3:55PM
