Chipper's Homer Leads Braves to Sweep Brewers

If the first two weeks of the baseball season are any indicator for Chipper Jones in his final season then he might miss about a quarter of the season’s games, but he’s damn sure going to rake when he’s in the lineup.

The Braves played their ninth game of the season on Sunday, a 7-4 win over the Milwaukee Brewers (who they swept) at Turner Field, but it marked just Jones’ third game of the season. 

Jones went 1-for-3 in the game with a pivotal three-run blast off of Brewers starter Chris Narveson in the third inning. Jones also drew two walks in the game. 

Chipper Jones is congratulated at home plate by Martin Prado after homering in the third inning.

Click HERE to see Chipper’s homer

The Braves are on a five game winning streak after starting the season on an atrocious four game losing streak. Atlanta is 3-0 with Jones in the lineup and only 2-4 without him.

As some of you may notice, Jones hit the home run not while wearing his usual (and sure to be retired) number 10 jersey, but a jersey sporting the number 42. The number 42 is retired across the sport, but brought out once a year on Jackie Robinson Day to salute the legendary Robinson, who broke baseball’s color barrier on April 15, 1947. We all know that Chipper doesn’t have too many more homers left in him, so it’s nice to see hit one while wearing such an iconic number.

I don't know this for sure, but I'd be willing to bet that this is Chipper's only career home run in a different jersey number than number 10. 

Jones is now hitting .417 on the season with two home runs and five RBI.  

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.