In case you didn't hear, Petco Park is known as pitcher-friendly. The outfield is fairly large. The salty air and San Diego's downtown wind patterns, hitters say, cause drives to stall.
Braves slugger Andruw Jones is undaunted. The man who hit 51 home runs last year has conquered Petco. Call him the Gaslamp Basher. When Jones homered in his first two at-bats last night, he moved past Rockies first baseman Todd Helton for most home runs hit by a visiting player at Petco. The homers were Jones' fifth and sixth at Petco. All it took him was 31 at-bats.
When Jones was 19, he stirred up the ghosts at Yankee Stadium by hitting home runs in his first two at-bats of the 1996 World Series. Not much has changed. Jones remains one of the game's most dangerous fastball hitters.
Jones got consecutive fastballs from Chris Young in his first at-bat last night. He didn't hit the first one, but when Young's 3-2 fastball went down the middle, Jones rifled it 387 feet to stretch a 1-0 lead to 3-0. It marked the first time this year that Young allowed a home run with someone on base.
Next time up, Jones sent Young's first pitch 397 feet, the ball skidding off the top of the center field wall for his 11th homer – No. 312 of a career that could take the Gold Glove center fielder to Cooperstown.
– TOM KRASOVIC
