Braves fans over the last couple of seasons have become accustomed to living through various ailments suffered by future Hall of Fame third baseman Chipper Jones. There have been strained obliques and sore hamstrings that have cropped up to force Jones out of the lineup. All of which have been of the nagging variety. The injury that Chipper suffered on Tuesday night could be much worse. Jones suffered a sprained left knee on an outstanding play to rob Hunter Pence of a base hit in the sixth inning. Jones landed awkwardly and was left crumpled over in pain. For those wondering this is the same left knee that Chipper tore up in 1994 coming out of spring training. An MRI is scheduled for today and only then will doctors know the severity of the injury. Jones was quoted as saying after the game that he didn’t think it was an ACL injury but that he heard a pop and had significant pain to his knee. Chipper was able to walk gingerly into the dug out after being removed from the game.
The Jones injury served as a back drop to an outstanding game that looked to be one that the Braves were going to let slip away. The game was scoreless through six behind strong pitching performances from Jair Jurrjens and J.A. Happ. The Braves were able to scratch across the first run after Jones’ replacement Brooks Conrad led off the seventh inning with a walk. After a Matt Diaz strikeout Brian McCann also walked and Troy Glaus brought home the first run of the game with an opposite field RBI single.
The Astros struck back in the bottom of the eighth when Michael Bourn led off the inning with a triple. Jurrjens struck out the next batter for the first out of the inning. Astros second baseman Jeff Keppinger then grounded to Alex Gonzalez at shortstop who threw home to try and cut down Bourn at the plate. The throw got away from Brian McCann and when the dust had settled Bourn had scored, Keppinger was at second, and Alex Gonzalez was charged with another error. After an intentional walk to Hunter Pence, Peter Moylan took over on the mound for the Braves. The Braves defense once again came up short as the Astros took the lead due to an Omar Infante error. Hunter Pence was then thrown out trying to steal third and Jonny Venters came in and got the last out of the eighth.
So the Braves went to the ninth trailing 2-1 with Astros closer Matt Lindstrom on the mound. When I think back about this year’s Braves team I won’t think about their defensive miscues, but will rather remember there tenacity of recovering from adversity. The ninth inning on Tuesday night was yet another example of that. Alex Gonzalez led off the inning with an infield single. Brooks Conrad then stepped in and crushed his sixth home run of the season to give the Braves back a 3-2 lead. After a Matt Diaz strikeout and a Brian McCann ground out, Troy Glaus ended his 37 game homerless drought by launching his 15th of the season into the left field bleachers. Billy Wagner came on to pitch a perfect ninth and record his 28th save of the season.
So yet again the Braves snatched a victory from the jaws of defeat. The Phillies also lost to the Dodgers so the Braves lead in the East grew to 2.5 games. Braves rookie right fielder Jason Heyward was scratched from the starting lineup just before the game started also with a sore knee. Reportedly the injury is only minor and Heyward could be back today. All eyes will be on the Chipper Jones MRI today however. We will update here as soon as word becomes available. The Braves close out the series with the Astros today in an afternoon tilt with a 2:05 pm start time. Tommy Hanson will be on the mound for the Braves. He will be opposed by Astros lefty Wandy Rodriguez.
Add us as a preferred source on Google