Game StoryATLANTA (Ticker) -- Greg Maddux is back to his old self. Maddux pitched seven scoreless innings in his best performance of the season and Marcus Giles and Gary Sheffield each homered and drove in two runs to lead the Atlanta Braves to a 4-2 victory over the St. Louis Cardinals. Many questioned if Maddux's best days were behind him after the four-time Cy Young Award winner posted an 11.05 ERA in losing his first three starts. But he has won two of his last three appearances and was dominant against the Cardinals. "You knew the same old Doggie was going to show up at some point," Braves left fielder Chipper Jones said. "He was so out of character his first two or three starts. He's been working tail off with figuring out his mechanics. He's obviously figured it out." Maddux (2-3) yielded just a double and two singles and allowed just one runner past first base. He threw 54 of 76 pitches for strikes and walked none as the Braves won for the ninth time in 10 games. "I'm always searching. I am just trying to get my mechanics right," said Maddux, who lowered his ERA to 5.92. "Probably very little difference, but it feels like a lot different. Tonight was good. I wasn't thinking about pitching, I was thinking about how to throw pitches." "(Maddux was) great, outstanding," Atlanta manager Bobby Cox said. "He threw a lot of strikes, got ground balls, didn't walk a batter. It sure was vintage Doggie." The veteran righthander outdueled St. Louis ace Matt Morris, who gave up two runs and five hits in seven innings. He is 0-5 in 10 career starts against Atlanta, the only National League team he has not beaten. "I've got 24 guys in this locker room that don't like facing him," Jones said. "He's just been unlucky against us. Anytime we see him in the rotation, we're not looking forward to seeing him." Giles and Sheffield hit back-to-back homers off Morris (1-2) with one out in the first inning. "With Maddux on the mound, you've got to be careful with every pitch," Morris said. "When you put your team in a hole right off the get-go, the whole vibe changes. I just tried to keep it close from there on out. I made some decent pitches after that." Morris retired nine straight batters following the homers and allowed only four baserunners but his teammates could get nothing going against Maddux. "After they got two runs, I knew it would be hard to win with Maddux pitching," he said. "He was moving the ball around. He's a thinker, he gets guys out just by out-thinking them." Atlanta added two runs off Cardinals reliever Jeff Fassero in the eighth on an RBI single by Giles and Sheffield's sacrifice fly. St. Louis halved the lead on Jim Edmonds' two-run homer off Darren Holmes with none out in the ninth. John Smoltz entered and allowed a one-out single to Tino Martinez before walking Eli Marrero. But Smoltz retired J.D. Drew and Orlando Palmeiro to notch his league-leading eighth save. Maddux had only one three-ball count and allowed just five runners to reach base. He hit Fernando Vina to open the game and gave up a leadoff double to Scott Rolen in the second but worked out of both innings. Vina reached on an error with one out in the third, but Maddux retired 13 of the next 15 batters he faced, allowing one-out singles in the fifth and sixth innings. "Greg threw a great game," Edmonds said. "He threw the ball well, he mixed it up. He's been around the game too long to worry about getting off a little slow."
