Jones Ties Career Best With 5 RBI Game; Has Words About Moyer

Chipper Jones had another great game on Saturday night (May 5) in the Atlanta Braves 13-9 win over the Colorado Rockies as he drove in a season high five runs. The five RBI game matches Chipper’s career best.  

The Braves were down 6-0 to the Rockies before Jones really got them kickstarted. In the top of the fifth inning, Chipper doubled in pitcher Mike Minor for his first RBI of the night at Coors Field in Colorado. In the top of the sixth inning he drove in shortstop Tyler Pastornicky and pinch hitter Juan Francisco on a single to center for RBIs two and three. RBIs four and five came in the top half of the seventh inning when another single scored right fielder Jason Heyward and pinch hitter Martin Prado.

Despite, Jones’ career-tying game the thing that possibly stood out the most from Saturday’s game was a controversy that brewed between Jones and the Rockies 49-year old starting pitcher Jamie Moyer, who earlier this season became the oldest starting pitcher to win a game in baseball history. Moyer accused Jones of stealing signals.

After the game Jones mentioned that Moyer’s accusation of him stealing signals “woke up a sleeping giant” and led to the Braves comeback after starting the game down 6-0 to the Rockies.

Jones told MLB.com: “He accused me of relaying a sign down 6-2 with a 3-0 count to Brian McCann. I have never relayed a sign to anyone while I’m on second base. You question our integrity, that’s wrong. I’ve never accused him of doctoring a baseball. I’ve never accused him of over-milligraming, nothing. That’s (garbage) and he woke us up. I didn’t see any signs on the 900-foot homers that were hit.”

Jones also told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution’s David O’Brien on Sunday: “I told (Todd) Helton and Tulo (Troy Tulowitzki) to tell him he could meet me in the tunnel to discuss it if he’d like, and I never heard back.” I love that Chipper 

Jones still has that kind of fire at age 40 in his final season.

I really don’t get why Moyer and other players and baseball people view stealing signs as such a big deal/bad thing in the first place. Sign stealing should be viewed as a great strategy/skill and not breaking one of baseball’s unwritten rules. So, Moyer was essentially making a huge deal out of something that baseball folk need to desperately get over. 

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It is now less than five days before I get to go to Busch Stadium up in St. Louis to see the Braves take on the Cardinals. I desperately hope that Chipper Jones is in the lineup for Friday night's game.

Chipper Blasts Bomb on 40th Birthday Against Dodgers

Braves legend Chipper Jones celebrated his 40thbirthday in grand fashion with a solo home run to get the Braves going in the top of the fifth inning on Tuesday night against the Los Angeles Dodgers in Dodgers Stadium.

The home run came off of Dodgers starting pitcher Aaron Harang with the Braves down 2-0 to the Dodgers at the time. The Braves would tie the game 2-2 later in the fifth. The game would end up going into the ninth inning tied at 3, after each team scored one more time. In the ninth, Braves left fielder Martin Prado drove in shortstop Tyler Pastornicky for the go ahead and eventual winning run with a triple over the heard of Dodgers center fielder and current National League MVP frontrunner Matt Kemp.

Jones’ birthday blast is the fifth homer for the veteran on his birthday in 13 games. The homer was also his 13^th as a visitor at Dodgers Stadium. Chipper’s five career dingers on his birthday tie him for the active lead with New York Yankees slugger Alex Rodriguez and Colorado Rockies vet Todd Helton. Jones also homered on his 24^th birthday, twice on his 29^th birthday and on his 36^th birthday, according to the Miami Herald. He is now 21 for 49 on his day of birth.   

To see Chipper’s birthday blast click: HERE

Thanks to MLB.tv showing the Braves/Dodgers game as its free game of the day I was able to see Chipper Jones’ 40^th birthday. This game marked only the second Braves game I’ve seen so far this season on TV (I saw the Braves final game against the Astros in Houston earlier in the season). Big kudos to MLB.com and MLB.tv for choosing Jones’ 40^th birthday game as the free game of the day. I’m sure it put a lot of smiles on Braves fans like me, who are out of Braves territory and don’t get to see many of their games.

Chipper’s home run was his only hit of the game as he went 1-for-3 against Harang and was walked in the top of the eighth inning by Dodgers reliever Kenley Jansen. In the top of the 6^th inning, Jones had a likely RBI single taken away from him when his hit basically caught Harang, who was able to turn a 1-6-3 double play out of it.

The Braves are now 11-2 in Chipper's birthday games. According to the Atlanta-Journal Constitution’s David O’Brien, Chipper became the fifth player to homer on his 40th birthday in Major League Baseball history on Tuesday night in L.A.

Despite playing in less than half as many games as many of his teammates, Jones is tied for the team lead in home runs with three. Catcher Brian McCann, second baseman Dan Uggla, first baseman Freddie Freeman and Chipper’s frequent replacement at third base Juan Francisco all have three bombs on the season, as well. Jones’ nine RBI on the season are tied with McCann and Uggla on the team, behind Freeman’s 15 and Prado’s 11. Jones is now hitting .276 on the season.

Chipper’s first home run at Dodgers Stadium came off of Carlos Perez on April 19, 1999. The only pitcher he’s rounded the bases off of more than once at Dodgers Stadium was Darren Dreifort, also in 1999.

Should Jones crack the Braves lineup in tomorrow night’s game it’ll be his last at Dodgers Stadium. Veteran pitcher Ted Lilly will take the mound for the Dodgers. Jones is 3-for-13 (.231) in his career against Lilly with no homers and three RBI.

Chipper to Receive Rest; Career #s Against Arizona

The Atlanta Braves are currently riding high on a five-game win streak and are 10-1 since opening the season on a four game losing streak. Take away those first four games and the Braves are the best team in baseball right now.

In today’s 3-2 win over the Arizona Diamondbacks, Chipper Jones went 1-for-3 with an RBI single, giving him eight RBI on the year in only eight games. Jones is currently batting a solid .286. His eight RBI are good enough for third on the team behind Freddie Freeman’s 13 and Brian McCann’s nine.

Jones has missed almost half of the season thus far, playing in only eight of the team’s 15 games thus far due to his sore knee. Jones had to miss the series opener against the Diamondbacks on Thursday after swelling of the knee during the long flight from Atlanta to Phoenix to play the D‘Backs.

This brings up an unfortunate point in that Jones’ knee on flights, which of course there are plenty of during the season, could cause him to miss quite a few series openers (hopefully not the series opener against the St. Louis Cardinals on May 11, for which I have tickets to).

Juan Francisco, who has hit two home runs in replacement of Jones, has been getting much of the playing time at third base when Chipper is not in the lineup. In addition to Francisco’s two homers this season he’s batting .292 with six RBI. Experts say that Francisco could see as many as 250 at-bats this season in replace of Jones.

According to MLB.com’s Jesse Sanchez, the Braves will give Chipper the day off on Sunday for the final game against the Diamondbacks. So, barring a pinch hit appearance, Saturday will have been Jones’ final game at Arizona’s Chase Field in his career. Sanchez reports that Jones will likely also be given rest on Monday against the Los Angeles Dodgers at Dodgers Stadium and will next play on Tuesday, which happens to be Chipper’s 40^th birthday.

It’s interesting to note that Chipper has been in baseball three years longer than the Arizona Diamondbacks organization. Jones’ rookie season was 1995. The Diamondbacks inaugural season was 1998. In 96 career games against the Diamondbacks, Jones has hit around .325 with 15 homers and 62 RBI. Jones hit six of his 15 career homers off the Diamondbacks off of future hall of fame pitcher Randy Johnson. Johnson is the only D’Backs pitcher that Jones has taken deep more than once.

This blog is dedicated to Chipper Jones’ final season in baseball and won’t feature too much talking on topics that don’t feature Jones, or at least the Atlanta Braves, but I must take this opportunity to congratulate Chicago White Sox pitcher Philip Humber on making baseball history by throwing the 21^st perfect game in baseball history on Saturday afternoon against the Seattle Mariners. I was able to see the final inning of Humber’s perfect game and let me tell you the final inning of a perfect game is among the most nerve-wracking things in sports you can ever be witness to.

Jones Misses Final Home Opener with Knee Swelling

Chipper Jones had to be scratched from the Atlanta Braves lineup for the Braves home opener on Friday night due to swelling in his recently surgically-repaired left knee. The knee had to be drained during Friday’s game and was said to have shown great improvement and flexibility almost immediately. Despite this, Jones would also miss the second game of the series against the Milwaukee Brewers on Saturday. 

According to the Atlanta-Journal Constitution, Jones had “45cc drained from his knee, the equivalent of about 1.5 ounces, and also received a pain-killing injection.”

Despite the fact that the Braves opened up the season 0-4 without Jones in the lineup against the Mets and Astros, the Braves didn’t struggle too much without him on Friday and Saturday as they beat the Brew Crew on both days. Jones hopes to be back in the Bravos lineup for the series finale on Sunday afternoon.

The biggest concern going forward would have to be whether or not this will happen frequently during the season and even possibly if further knee problems would force Chipper to cut his farewell season short. Jones is certainly going to need plenty of rest for his knee and possibly other injuries during the season (I hope to God he’s in the lineup for the Braves series opener in St. Louis against the Cardinals on Friday, May 11 because I have tickets). Braves fans might see usual starting leftfielder Martin Prado and recent acquisition from the Cincinnati Reds Juan Francisco in the lineup at third as much as they see Jones this 

season.

The biggest disappointment about this entire situation is that missing Friday’s home opener means that Chipper has missed the final home opener of his career. He previously missed the final opening day of his career the week before. I don’t know if this is something that he really thinks or cares about, but I know us fans certainly do.

Jones is currently batting .444 with four hits, a home run and two RBI this season in two games. Hopefully we’ll see him back in the lineup later this afternoon when the Braves face Chris Narveson and the Brewers.

Chipper Could Return to Lineup Tuesday Night

There seems to be a pretty decent chance that Chipper Jones could start his season a little bit earlier than planned from his knee surgery. Jones could be back in the Atlanta Braves lineup as soon as Tuesday night in the Braves second game of a three game series against the Houston Astros at Minute Maid Park in Houston.

Braves beat writer for MLB.com Mark Bowman broke the news on his Twitter account on Monday saying: “Chipper felt good today. Could be activated in time to start tomorrow's game.” 

Jones’ season debut was initially expected to come on Friday, April 13 during the Braves home opener at Turner Field against the Milwaukee Brewers.

However, Jones returning early could be something that the struggling Braves right now could desperately use. The Braves are 0-4 to start the season and have looked atrocious losing those four games to frankly horrible baseball team. The Braves opened the season by getting swept by the New York Mets, who many predicted (including me) would be in the basement of the National League East Division this season. The Braves then dropped the first game of their series against the Astros, who were the worst team in baseball last season and shouldn’t be much better this season, tonight.

I don’t expect a whole lot out of Jones when he rejoins the Braves lineup (we all know he’s not the player he used to be), but just his veteran presence in the lineup should be at least somewhat of a boost to the ballclub. With this being Chipper Jones’ final season in the big leagues you know that he doesn’t want to go out on a crappy ballclub, so he’s really got to get in there and get these guys rolling. This club on paper from roster spot number one to 25 is pretty good, but they always seem to underachieve. Being the leader of the clubhouse a lot of that is on Chipper and he needs to put his foot down now.

Proof the Braves need Jones back in lineup comes from replacement Juan Francisco's 3 error game on Monday

Even more so than using Jones’ bat in the lineup they need his steady glove back at third base. Jones’ replacement on Monday night, Juan Francisco (who recently was acquired in a trade from the Cincinnati Reds) committed an utterly ridiculous three errors, including two on a SINGLE PLAY.  

If Chipper does return to the lineup on Tuesday night (game time in Houston is 7:05), I’d love to see it, but unfortunately won’t be able too. There hasn’t been a single Braves game televised on national TV, and even though the Astros are one of the four local teams where I live, this game isn’t being shown in favor of the Texas Rangers/Seattle Mariners game.