Braves Blank Phils, 3-0

ATLANTA -- Odalis Perez appears to be healthy.

In his longest outing in nearly two years, Perez pitched seven strong innings and Brian Jordan and Andruw Jones homered as the Atlanta Braves blanked the Philadelphia Phillies, 3-0.

Perez missed all of last season after undergoing "Tommy John" surgery on his pitching elbow. The lefthander was making his second start and third appearance of the season on Sunday.

Perez had the Phillies off-balance all afternoon, limiting them to four singles with three walks and four strikeouts. He threw 99 pitches in matching his longest outing since June 2, 1999 against Colorado.

"I feel happy. It feels good to go out and have a good outing," Perez said. "It feels very good for the team. I'm happy to be here helping. Starting, relieving, helping the team wherever I can."

"He did a great job. Glad to have him here pitching well," said Braves general manager John Schuerholz.

Mike Remlinger gave up one hit in one inning before John Rocker worked the ninth for his fourth save.

Jordan and Jones provided the offense, hitting solo homers in the second and eighth innings, respectively. Rafael Furcal doubled in a run in the eighth.

Phillies starter Robert Person (1-1) yielded three runs and four hits over 7 2/3 innings, walking one and striking out seven.

"He pitched a good enough game to win, but you can't win with no runs," said Larry Bowa. "It's very early in the season, but we're just not hitting. I don't know if it was the Braves pitching or hitting. It was probably a combination of both."

Perez had his toughest inning in the first, giving up a single to Kevin Jordan and walk to Bobby Abreu. But he worked his way out of trouble by getting Scott Rolen to bounce into an inning-ending double play.

"He kept us right there all day long," said Braves manager Bobby Cox. "He had a great changeup today and his fastball had movement."

After the first, the Phils failed to put two runners on in any inning the rest of the way.

Person also was strong but made a mistake on Jordan with one out in the second. On a 3-1 fastball, Jordan hit his second homer of the season over the left-field wall.

"[Perez] pitched a good game out there," Person said. "He had a good changeup. He had us off balance. I made one mistake. I challenged Brian Jordan and he hit it. It was a 3-1 fastball. The guy was hitting .170 so on paper, that was a good pitch, so I just challenged him."

Unable to break through against Perez, the Phillies were kept in the game by Person, who allowed just two singles over the next five innings before running into trouble in the eighth.

Jones led off with his second homer of the season and pinch-hitter Dave Martinez walked two outs later. Ricky Bottalico relieved and Furcal greeted him with an RBI double.

"He pitched outstanding. He just made a couple of mistakes," Jones said. "He just left a fastball over the plate and I hit it out."

Jones had two hits for the Braves, who won the rubber game of the three-game series.

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