Chipper out of Braves’ lineup

The Braves are accustomed to dealing with Chipper Jones’ injury absences. Being used to it, however, doesn’t make it any easier.

The veteran third baseman was out of the lineup Wednesday and could miss at least a few more games after aggravating his left-thumb injury.

“Last night was the worst I’ve done it,” said Jones, who was initially injured when he was jammed by an inside pitch in an April 2 spring-training game. “It’s a situation where you keep aggravating it and keep aggravating it, just not giving it enough time to get better.”

Jones said he was jammed by at least two more pitches after his initial injury, causing him to miss an April 8 game at Philadelphia with bruising around the thumb, index finger and hand. He got jammed again in his final at-bat Tuesday and had similar bruising Wednesday.

Jones, who turns 37 on April 24, thinks he will be “day-to-day” after Thursday or Friday, meaning he could return at any point when he’s ready. Manager Bobby Cox said Jones would probably miss a few games, but didn’t know anything more than that.

No MRI or X-rays were taken, Jones said, because strength and movement tests done by Braves medical staff had presumably eliminated the possibility of structural damage.

After missing the April 8 game, the Braves were off April 9, and Jones returned to the lineup and went 4-for-16 with four singles and three RBIs in the first four games of the homestand. He was sore the past couple of games.

Jones wore a small guard on the thumb in Tuesday’s game, but said it felt awkward and didn’t help.

“I don’t know. Usually it feels pretty good after a couple of days,” Jones said of being jammed in the past. “But a couple of days didn’t prevent it from coming back. I wasn’t able to shake off an at-bat where I got jammed, and I’m going to have to get to the point where I can get jammed and not have it affect me throughout the game.

“If I catch a ball wrong in my glove — you field a lot of hot shots down there at third, and you’re going to get thumbed every once in a while. Something as simple as playing catch, you have to pay close attention to catch the ball in the web or pocket. You get thumbed at all, you’re right back to square one.”

He has played fewer than 140 games in five consecutive seasons because of injuries and won his first batting title in 2008 after hitting a career-high .364 with 22 homers and 75 RBI in 128 games.

Despite injuries, he has been on a late-career surge to remain one of the game’s most productive hitters, when healthy. Since June 26, 2006, he has hit .355 with 71 homers, 232 RBIs and a .447 on-base percentage and .623 slugging percentage in 317 games.

The Braves were 167-150 in games he played in that stretch, 41-59 when he did not.

Diaz in left

Matt Diaz was in the lineup in left field Wednesday, a day after left fielder Garret Anderson made two errors on dropped foul balls and went 0-for-4 in his first game back from a calf-muscle strain.

Cox said Anderson was out of the lineup not because the Braves were facing a left-hander (Diaz has a .328 career average vs. lefties), but because the Braves have a day game Thursday and he didn’t want to play Anderson in three consecutive games so soon after his injury.

Diaz had a .425 average against the Marlins, with seven homers, 21 RBI and a .446 OBP and .708 slugging percentage in 36 games. He led current Braves in average, OBP and slugging against them.

Anderson missed most of spring training after pulling his left calf, which he aggravated last week. Cox thought that having so little playing time in spring training had probably affected him Tuesday, when Anderson missed a couple of foul balls near the left-field wall.

The former Angels outfielder made as many errors Tuesday as in his past 298 games in the outfield.