Ailments in the Past for Smoltz

John Smoltz figures it has been long enough since his arm surgery and that he has never felt better.

He has numbers that support him.

Smoltz (7-1) became the major leagues’ first seven-game winner and Chipper Jones homered and drove in three runs Friday night, leading the Atlanta Braves to their sixth win in a row, an 11-0 rout of the Phillies in Philadelphia.

He gave up two singles in six innings to win his seventh in a row, and struck out seven. Smoltz walked one and didn’t allow a runner to get past first.

“My physical problems are gone and I think that I’m at my best,” said Smoltz, who was 12-7 last season after having elbow surgery in September 1994.

“I think it takes a full year to recover from that type of surgery,” he said. “Now I have much better command of my pitches because my physical problems are gone.”

The Braves got to Phillie starter Terry Mulholland (3-3) for eight runs and nine hits in only three-plus innings.

Javier Lopez had four hits and drove in two runs for Atlanta, which matched a season high with 18 hits. The Braves also had 18 hits in an 11-9 victory over the Phillies in Smoltz’s previous start.

Montreal 5, Houston 2--Henry Rodriguez delayed the game twice, the second time for his second home run of the game. It was a three-run shot in the eighth inning that satisfied an obligation on Guaranteed Win night in Montreal.

Fans in the left-field bleachers in Montreal have begun throwing Oh Henry candy bars onto the field after Rodriguez, who has 15 homers, hits one, and the first delay came in the first inning when he hit a solo homer off Doug Brocail.

Rodriguez’s three-run homer came off Jeff Tabaka and broke a 2-2 tie.

San Francisco 5, Pittsburgh 4--Glenallen Hill broke out of a three-for-21 slump with a homer and a double that drove in Matt Williams with the winning run in the 10th inning in Pittsburgh.

Florida 4, Colorado 2--Jeff Conine saved a run with his glove and hit a tiebreaking two-run single in the fifth inning in Miami for the Marlins, who won their fifth game in a row.

New York 2, Chicago 0--Butch Huskey, who hit nine homers in spring training but has struggled all season, hit his second to help the Mets end a four-game losing streak.

Cincinnati at San Diego--Eric Davis hit a three-run homer to give the Reds a 5-3 lead in a game that started three hours late and was suspended in the seventh inning at 1:45 a.m. in Cincinnati because of rain. The game will resume tonight.