The Braves took two of three from the Expos, the stars being Brian Jordan (who homered in each win) and Mark DeRosa (who went 2-4 in each win, including a game-winning home run in the tenth Saturday). The Phillies have split the first two with the Mets and are tied in the third game; the Marlins have split the first two with the Reds.

If you look up top, the “Free Marcus Giles” banner came down because the Braves called him up at last. He started at second base and lead off in all three games of the Expos series. He only had a couple of hits, but hit the ball hard a few times and worked the count; the rest will come. Quilvio Veras went on the DL to make room.

The Braves made two other roster moves. Kevin Millwood came off of the DL Friday. He lost that game, but looked OK. I thought that the umpire squeezed his strike zone, and he had trouble throwing anything good that was called a strike. If the high strike were getting called he would have been fine. Trey Moore was sent down to make room.

Odalis Perez started the Saturday game and looked pretty good, but took a ball off of his pitching hand in the sixth inning. He needed stitches and was put on the DL. John Smoltz took his place on the roster! John will work out of the bullpen for the foreseeable future. He finished up today’s game for Greg Maddux, in a non-save situation (the Braves led 8-2). Greg’s now 13-5, second in the league in ERA to John Burkett, and right in the Cy Young hunt.