Hot streak has Braves back in first place

ATLANTA - The Atlanta Braves began a long road trip Monday with the best record in the National League despite spending most of the first five weeks of the season floundering at the plate.

In an impressive four-game sweep of the Houston Astros, the Braves finally put together the complete team effort - including the hitting - that manager Bobby Cox hopes will provide momentum on the team's longest road trip of the season.

The sweep gave the Braves a five-game winning streak and 13 wins in their last 16 games entering Monday night's game at Colorado, the beginning of the 12-game, 14-day road trip.

"A sweep is hard to do in a four-game series," Cox said.

Even so, the Braves made it look easy.

The Braves averaged almost 10 runs per game while their starters allowed a total of only three runs in the sweep that was capped by a 16-0 rout Sunday. Outscoring the Astros 38-8 in the four games, the Braves looked like a team prepared to withstand challenges in the NL East from Florida, Washington and the New York Mets.

"We're playing better baseball," said first baseman Julio Franco. "The team is really coming along. The pieces of the puzzle are coming together. So it's going to be fun."

The depth of the Braves' rotation was emphasized in the four games. Horacio Ramirez, the No. 5 starter who had not pitched in 11 days, threw seven shutout innings in a 4-1 win Saturday. Mike Hampton, no better than No. 3 behind John Smoltz and Tim Hudson, hurled a two-hit shutout Sunday, facing only one batter above the minimum 27.

Houston manager Phil Garner kept hoping for a break but kept finding another dominant starter on the mound for Atlanta.

"It's hard to tell whether it's their pitching or us," Garner said.

With his strong starting pitching, Cox can afford to be patient with his bats.

The Braves rank second in baseball with a 3.01 ERA. Hampton, Hudson and John Thomson all rank among the top 10 in the league with ERAs below 3.00.

Even after collecting 17 hits in the 16-0 win Sunday, the Braves still rank only ninth in the NL with a.259 batting average and only fifth in runs scored.

Five starters - outfielders Raul Mondesi and Brian Jordan, first baseman Adam LaRoche, catcher Johnny Estrada and shortstop Rafael Furcal - began the road trip hitting.250 or worse.

Mondesi, at.202, appeared to be in potential danger of losing playing time to rookie Ryan Langerhans, who hit two homers and drove in six runs Sunday. Then again, Langerhans was hitting only.182 before his big day.

"Career.280 and.300 hitters eventually are going to hit.280,.300," said Chipper Jones, the team's most consistent hitter.

The averages began to climb as the Braves feasted on Astros pitching.

"When you score 38 runs in four games, that's pretty good," Jones said.

A sore foot kept Jones out for about a week, but he still had a hot bat when he returned to the lineup last week. He is hitting.349 with five homers and 19 RBI but Marcus Giles, who already has had foot and knee injuries, is the only other regular above the.300 mark.

"You'll see the numbers start to climb," Jones said. "They can't stay that bad all year."