Sheffield Powers Atlanta

Gary Sheffield is doing his best to keep up with off-season workout partner Barry Bonds.

Sheffield homered for the third consecutive game and Andruw Jones and Chipper Jones homered during a seven-run sixth inning as the Atlanta Braves defeated the Philadelphia Phillies, 11-2, Thursday night at Atlanta.

“I couldn’t have hoped for anything better, except maybe winning all three games, but the main thing was winning the series,” Sheffield said.

Sheffield, acquired from the Dodgers in an off-season trade for outfielder Brian Jordan and pitcher Odalis Perez, hit a three-run homer in the first inning to raise his runs batted in total to seven. After going three for five, he’s batting .462 (six for 13).

The 33-year-old outfielder credits Bonds for getting him into the best shape of his life. Sheffield and his wife spent two months with Bonds at the San Francisco outfielder’s home during the winter, working out each day.

“He’s been asking me for years to work out with him during the off-season and I finally said yes,” said Sheffield, who talks to Bonds regularly by phone.

“I never bought into it, but after he hit 73 home runs, you just got to buy into it.

“I had told him I was hitting 30-40 home runs without it [the workout regimen], but he told me eventually I will need it.

“It was a motivation factor more than anything. We’d get up at 6 a.m. and work out until 2 p.m.”

Rafael Furcal and Andruw Jones singled and Sheffield hit the first pitch he saw from Terry Adams (0-1) over the left-center field fence for a 3-0 lead.

“It was a hanging slider. Not a good pitch. He did what he usually does with it,” said Adams, a teammate of Sheffield’s last season with the Dodgers.

“He’s definitely relaxed out there. You can see the way he’s playing. He’s happy to be in Atlanta.”

The Phillies cut it to 3-2 off Jason Marquis (1-0) on Mike Lieberthal’s RBI double in the fourth and Scott Rolen’s first home run in the sixth.

The Braves broke it open in the sixth, sending 10 batters to the plate with seven getting hits and scoring.

Marcus Giles, pinch-hitter Mark DeRosa and Furcal had RBI hits before Andruw Jones hit a two-run home run--his first--and Chipper Jones followed with his first.

Both home runs came off reliever Ricky Bottalico.

Marquis went six innings. The right-hander gave up five hits, two runs, walked three and struck out eight.

“I can’t say enough about what Sheffield has done the first three games. Hopefully it’s a sign of what he will do the whole season,” Marquis said.

“He certainly makes every pitcher’s job much easier.”

Adams, making his Phillies’ debut after signing a free agent contract during the off-season after two years with the Dodgers, gave up eight hits, six runs, walked two and struck out six in 52/3 innings.

Atlanta third baseman Vinny Castilla was scratched from the starting lineup because of a sore left foot.

Pittsburgh 3, New York 2--Kevin Young hit a two-run homer and the Pirates moved over .500 for the first time since 1999, defeating the Mets at New York.

Jimmy Anderson gave up three hits over 62/3 innings. He gave up a leadoff home run to Joe McEwing in the first inning, then walked Roberto Alomar and hit Mo Vaughn in the shoulder with a pitch. But he got Mike Piazza to hit into a double play and retired Edgardo Alfonzo on a grounder to third to end the threat.

Colorado 6, St. Louis 1--John Thomson worked seven strong innings and Juan Uribe and Benny Agbayani homered for the Rockies at St. Louis.

Thomson gave up a run and seven hits, striking out three and walking none, and induced 14 pop-ups.

The Cardinals scored in the first on Fernando Vina’s leadoff single, stolen base and a sacrifice fly by J.D. Drew, but didn’t get a runner past second the rest of the game.

Florida 1, Montreal 0--Brad Penny pitched a four-hitter and Derrek Lee homered for the third game in a row to lead the Marlins at Montreal, in front of a sparse crowd of 4,551.

Penny, who struck out three and walked two in recording his second career shutout, got Vladimir Guerrero to fly out to the warning track in center field to end the game.

Cincinnati 3, Chicago 1--Sammy Sosa hit his second home run, but Fred McGriff’s error set up two Cincinnati runs and the Reds won at Cincinnati.

Sean Casey doubled to start the Reds’ second and McGriff let Aaron Boone’s grounder skitter through his legs, sending Casey home. Boone scored on Jason LaRue’s two-out double off the wall in left-center.