ATLANTA -- When Brian McCann returned to Atlanta on Sunday night, he knew it was time to pay a visit to the batting cages that his father owns in a suburban warehouse. There, he could wish Howie McCann a happy Father's Day and at the same time take the opportunity to have his dad further evaluate the once picture-perfect swing that he'd lost over the course of the past two months.

"It was just one of those things where things were snowballing and I was putting together some poor at-bats," McCann said. "I got to the point where I needed to go back where it all started. Something clicked for me, and today is the best I've played all season long."

McCann's comments followed the four-RBI performance he provided while leading the Braves to a momentum-building, 9-4, series-opening win over the Red Sox in front of 47,562 fans at Turner Field on Monday night. It was his decisive three-run, fifth-inning homer that chased an uncharacteristically ineffective Curt Schilling and silenced many of the pro-Boston chants that resounded through the electric soldout setting.

"I didn't know there were so many Bostonians in Atlanta," said Braves manager Bobby Cox, whose team has won three of its last four games. "I knew there were a lot of Cubby fans. But our fans outdid them, I think."

More importantly, thanks to a solid Chuck James effort and a 15-hit offensive attack, Cox's team was able to outdo the Red Sox, who had won five of the previous six games they'd played against the Braves. McCann's three-run fifth-inning homer provided the difference and gave James the opportunity to enjoy the fact that he'd limited a potent Boston offense to just two runs over six innings.

"It's just one of those things when you face them, you hope you're on that day and you hope you hit your spots," said James, who incurred his only damage courtesy of the solo homers Coco Crisp hit in the second and fifth innings.

Crisp's first career two-homer performance, which highlighted his four-hit night, wouldn't be enough to erase the damage the Braves did against Schilling, who surrendered six earned runs and 10 hits in just 4 1/3 innings. The veteran right-hander, who lacked his normal velocity, had won each of his previous seven starts against Atlanta, dating back to the 2001 season.

"He wasn't throwing 92, 93 [mph] like he normally does," said McCann, who now has four hits in six career at-bats against Schilling. "He threw a lot more splits and curveballs and cutters than the scouting report says."

Schilling's last pitch of the of the evening was a cutter that McCann deposited into the right-center seats to give him his second homer in the past five games. During the previous 54 games he had played this season, the All-Star catcher had battled discomfort in his left ring finger and consequently had collected just three homers.

The session with his father, a former collegiate coach who continues to teach hitting to Atlanta's youth, certainly paid dividends during this two-hit evening. McCann got it started with an RBI double in the two-run fourth against Schilling, who exited without a strikeout for the first time in 438 starts -- a span that dates back to July, 1, 1993, when McCann was just 9 years old.

"I was doing some mechanical things that I normally don't do," said McCann, who entered the game hitting just .191 in his previous 68 at-bats. "It's something so small that [my dad] picked up on right away, and within a real short period of time, I felt like I did last year."

Like McCann, who hit .333 on the way to a Silver Slugger Award last year, James also gave the Red Sox a look at the successful form he had during the 2006 season. After allowing six earned runs in just 4 1/3 innings against the Twins last Wednesday, he came back with a more lively fastball that simply made his changeup that much more effective. Other than the consecutive one-out walks he issued in the first inning, the 25-year-old southpaw focused showed improved control, something he believes was a result of finishing his pitches with his entire body.

"I think bending down and trying to use a little more leg has gotten my pitches down in the zone," said James, who is 3-1 in four career Interleague starts. "When I did miss, it was off the plate instead of over the middle."

After James exited, Tyler Yates popped McCann's mitt with a couple of 98-mph fastballs in a seventh inning that was only dented by J.D. Drew's leadoff homer. Macay McBride would allow another run during his ninth-inning struggles, but the late-inning damage wouldn't be nearly enough to erase the early lead the Braves built against Schilling, who has lost consecutive starts for the first time this season.

James even jumped into the offensive act with an RBI single following a two-out intentional walk to Scott Thorman in the fourth inning.

Consecutive singles by Chipper Jones and Edgar Renteria sparked the Braves in both the fourth and fifth innings. Thorman, who doubled and scored the game's first run in the third inning, enhanced his recent progress with a two-run homer off Mike Timlin in the seventh.

"An outing like this one is definitely uncharacteristic [for Schilling]," said Jones, who matched the three-hit evening supplied by former Red Sox shortstop Renteria.

While that might have been the case, McCann is just hoping this was just a sign that he's getting that much closer to returning to his characteristically successful ways.