WASHINGTON – John Smoltz moved within one strikeout of Cy Young and within five wins of 200, leading the Atlanta Braves to a 6-4 victory over the Washington Nationals on Tuesday night.

Smoltz (2-1) didn’t allow an earned run until the seventh inning, Chipper Jones homered, and Kelly Johnson had a career-high four hits.

The Braves made three errors, two by shortstop Edgar Renteria, and squandered most of a four-run lead but held on against the Nationals, who wore Virginia Tech baseball caps as a tribute to the victims of Monday’s shooting rampage at the school.

Smoltz gave up four runs – two earned – in his six-plus innings, departing after allowing Chris Snelling’s RBI triple on his 102nd pitch. When the right-hander arrived in the dugout, he appeared to throw a bit of a tantrum, even though he was on his way to earning his 195th career victory across 20 major league seasons.

Smoltz allowed six hits, walked one and struck out two, raising his total to 2,797 Ks, one shy of tying Young for 18th on baseball’s career list.

Relievers Oscar Villareal, Rafael Soriano and Bob Wickman got the final nine outs, with Wickman earning his fourth save.

Atlanta had lost three of its previous four games, including two in a row to Washington.

The Nationals, meanwhile, had won three of four after a 1-8 start to the season. During that nine-game span, the Nationals fell behind by at least 3-0 in every outing – and that happened again Tuesday.

Jerome Williams (0-3) gave up three runs in the first, and when Washington went down 1-2-3 against Smoltz in the bottom half, it meant the Nationals have been outscored 19-0 in first innings this season.

The game’s first four batters singled, producing two runs: Johnson, Edgar Renteria, Jones and Andrew Jones. After Williams walked Brian McCann on four pitches to load the bases with no outs, Jeff Francoeur’s sacrifice fly made it 3-0.

Scott Thorman popped out, and center fielder Ryan Church made a sliding, backhanded catch of Ryan Langerhans’ blooper to end the inning.

The Braves went up 4-0 in the third on Francoeur’s RBI single. After Washington’s two unearned runs off Smoltz, Atlanta made it 5-2 on McCann’s run-scoring single off reliever Ryan Wagner in the seventh.

Washington cut its deficit to a run in the seventh. After Brian Schneider’s single and Snelling’s triple, Villareal got Austin Kearns to hit a bouncer to third base, but Chipper Jones couldn’t field it cleanly and was charged with an error. Felipe Lopez then singled up the middle to make it 5-4.

But Villareal struck out Belliard, Soriano entered and struck out Ryan Zimmerman in a 10-pitch at-bat, then got Dmitri Young to fly out to left on the 12th pitch he saw.

Notes: Chipper Jones hit his fourth homer of the season; it came off RHP Jon Rauch in the eighth. … Langerhans went 0-for-4, making him 2-for-25 (.080). … Williams went five innings, allowing four runs on seven hits.

AP-ES-04-17-07 2217EDT