Braves beat up Reds, Jones hurt

CINCINNATI - Braves third baseman Chipper Jones called it the story of his past couple of seasons.

Get things going offensively. Get hurt. Rinse and repeat. All that jazz.

Jones was 3-for-3 with a homer in Atlanta's 12-2 thumping of Cincinnati at Great American Ball Park on Tuesday when the tale played out yet again.

"Things feel like they're fixing to turn around," he said, "and then it's another injury."

An awkward landing on his right shoulder in the fourth inning somewhat overshadowed what the Braves' bats and starter Jorge Sosa were able to do in the team's seventh win in eight games. The win vaulted Atlanta to a season-high 5-game lead in the NL East.

Jones is considered day-to-day with a posterior rotator cuff strain, an injury the Reds and Braves' medical staffs said shouldn't require another stint on the disabled list.

"I think a couple of days off here or there and he'll be all right," manager Bobby Cox said.

Before the fall, Jones knocked in a season-high four RBI with a home run, double and single. He had three of Atlanta's 14 hits, which clobbered a Reds team that had won five in a row and 12 of 17.

But the victory came with a price. On a sharply hit grounder by Ryan Freel, Jones sprawled to his left and seemed to extend his shoulder beyond its natural range.

He immediately turned over, clutched the arm and grimaced with pain.

"I was in severe pain," said Jones, who was playing in only his 62nd of Atlanta's 107 games because of foot and side injuries. "I was done at that point. I couldn't imagine swinging a bat or throwing a baseball."

When he thinks about doing those things again depends heavily on how he feels this morning, he said.

One incentive for a return in the next couple of days might be the opportunity to play in this hitting haven of a ballpark.

Don't tell that to Ramon Ortiz. The Reds' starter couldn't make it through two innings and was battered by Atlanta for the second consecutive time in this building. He gave up six runs and four homers in a 10-5 Braves romp June 17. The right-hander kept the ball in the yard Tuesday, but it was bouncing all over the field in his shortest outing of the year, 1Q innings.

Braves right-hander Jorge Sosa (7-1) has flourished in the role of spot-starter.

With five innings of one-run work, he improved to 5-1 in 10 starts.

"It's been amazing to me that he's pitched this well," Cox said of Sosa. "I can't say enough about how he's picked us up, but he's doing it."

His teammates are helping out, too. The Braves have put up 54 runs in his starts. Nearly a third came Tuesday.

"I'd like to hit here every day," said catcher Brian McCann, who hit a two-run homer in the fifth.

Reach Travis Haney at travis.haney@morris.com.