Chipper Knocks Out Phillies with Ninth Career Walkoff Blast

Old number 10 never ceases to amaze Braves fans. Exactly four months to the day that Chipper Jones hit a game-winning walkoff homer against the Philadelphia Phillies to win 15-13 on May 2^nd he had a little more walkoff magic.

Braves starting pitcher Paul Maholm got roughed up early by the Phillies lineup and exited the game in the third inning down 7-1. However, the Braves started a comeback in the bottom of the ninth inning that culminated with Chipper blasting a fastball from Phillies All Star closer Jonathan Papelbon into the seats at Turner Field for a dramatic 8-7 win.

Jones’ game-winning blast was a much-needed boost for the Braves who have now won only five of their last 15 games and are trying to remain clinging on to one of the two National League wild card spots. The last couple of weeks the Braves have looked eerily similar to the hot team last year that saw a 9.5 game wild card lead blown during the final month of the season to a hard-charging St. Louis Cardinals squad that would go on to win the World Series.

With one month to play in this season, the final month of Chipper Jones’ career, the Braves hold a 3.5 game lead over the Pittsburgh Pirates for the crucial second wild card spot.

Hopefully Chipper’s late inning heroics will get the Braves back on the right track and send them to the playoffs. The Braves will likely have to settle for a wild card position, because the Washington Nationals have a 6.5 game lead in the National League East Division with the final month left to play.

The homer, which was Jones’ 14^th of the season, was the ninth walkoff home run hit during his illustrious and future hall of fame career. 

You can see Chipper’s dinger right HERE

Chipper Approaching Third Base Record

*NOTE* First of all, I must greatly apologize for the length of time that it’s been since I’ve updated this blog. I haven’t had the chance to write for it since I attended the Braves/Cardinals series a couple of weeks ago. I’ll try not to let that much time go by before updating again during this season, despite my busy life getting in the way.  

One milestone that Chipper Jones will likely break this season is to finish his career with the most career RBI of any third baseman in baseball history. That sentence and stat alone should prove Jones’ stature as one of the all-time greats in his sport. The current leader in that category is baseball Hall of Famer and Kansas City Royals legend George Brett who finished his career with 1,596 RBI. Between Brett and Jones is the man generally considered as the greatest third baseman in baseball history Philadelphia Phillies legend Mike Schmidt with 1,595 RBI.

Only needing 12 RBI to break the record for most RBI by a third basemen, Chipper should have the record within the next month if he remains healthy (something which he’s currently not). Jones has missed the last few Atlanta Braves games with a calf contusion that’s seen him miss most of the Braves series against the Tampa Bay Rays and the current series against the Cincinnati Reds. He is, however, expected to rejoin the Braves lineup soon.  

George Brett

Despite approaching the record for most RBI in a career by a third baseman, Jones has not accumulated all of his career RBI at the position. As most probably remember, Chipper played a couple of seasons as the Braves starting left fielder in the early 2000s. Jones has also accumulated RBI in his career at shortstop (which he began his career as and was drafted as) and as a designated hitter in interleague play.

It’s amazing to see that Jones is going to surpass both Mike Schmidt and George Brett in one of the sport’s most important statistical categories in the upcoming weeks. Other names he will either likely pass or could pass this season include Hall of Famers Andre Dawson, Nap Lajoie, Goose Goslin and Ernie Banks. He never ceases to amaze.

Chipper Ends Wild Game With Walk-Off

It’s been a little while since I’ve updated this blog, so I must apologize. It’s been an extremely hectic week with me working almost every day of the week and moving apartments during the week.

So, forgive me for going back a few days for this one.

The Atlanta Braves game on Wednesday (May 2) against the Philadelphia Phillies was probably the team’s (and maybe all of baseball’s) wildest game of the year, thus far. The Braves faced big deficits at multiple points during the game, made big comebacks, fell back down and then eventually won the game in extra innings 15-13.

Despite there being zero pitching from either team (which is interesting because both teams have top 10 pitching staffs [maybe even top 5] in the majors), this would’ve been a game that I would’ve killed to have seen. More than a month into the season I’ve seen about two and a half Braves games thanks to living in central Arkansas.

Seeing as how this is a blog about Chipper Jones’ final season there must be some sort of relevance in talking about this game, right? Yep, there is. For it was Chipper who ended this epic game with a walk off home run, the eighth walk off homer of his career, in the bottom of the eleventh.

Click HERE to see the shot

The home run came off of Phillies reliever Brian Sanches and is Jones’ 500^th home run as a professional baseball player (458 in the major leagues and 42 in the minor leagues [this number which came from the Atlanta-Journal Constitution apparently excludes homers in the playoffs, spring training and the all star game).

His homer was his fourth of the season. He would hit his fifth dinger of the season off of Colorado Rockies pitcher Matt Reynolds on Friday (May 4).  

Jones, who turned 40 recently, was joined by another 40-year old with a walk off on Wednesday. Rockies slugger Jason Giambi hit a pinch hit walk off homer to beat the Los Angeles Dodgers.

  
Jones said of his walk off homer: ''When I am in there, I want to make a splash. I did it tonight."