Chipper hurts knee during Braves' dramatic win

"Chipper's going to be out a while probably," Braves manager Bobby Cox said. "I hate to see it because he's played so good right now. It's about as good as I've seen him swing the bat in two years. He's been playing great defensively and offensively. It's going to be a while, probably. We'll see.

"Chip thinks it's not too bad. But that's Chip talking. I can't tell you. I don't know."

The Braves blew a 1-0 lead by giving up two runs in a two-error eighth inning, but their gritty miracle man, Conrad, came through  again  in the ninth, his two-run homer putting the Braves back ahead 3-2 and thrilling plenty of Braves fans in the crowd at Minute Maid Park.

Glaus pushed the lead to 4-2 when he snapped his 39-game homerless drought.

"This was huge," said Conrad, who entered the game as Jones' replacement. "Very exciting situation, especially for us to come back and win a game like that. Having the lead and losing it, making a few mistakes, and just coming back and winning that game, I can't say enough."

Glaus had an RBI single in the seventh inning to put the Braves ahead 1-0, then added an insurance run to the comeback with his first homer in 129 at-bats since June 19.

Billy Wagner pitched a perfect ninth inning for his 28th save as the Braves extended their lead to 2-1/2 games over second-place Philadephia in the National League East. The Phillies got hammered 15-9 by the Los Angeles Dodgers on Monday.

Overshadowed but hardly forgotten was the work of Braves starter Jair Jurrjens, who pitched 7-1/3 strong innings but got no decision. He was charged with six hits and two runs (one earned).

"It's a great win,"  Cox said, "because of the way J.J. pitched, Chipper gets hurt, and we come back and win the game. Adversity staring is right in the face, and we came back....

"I don't know who's won more games late, our regulars or [Conrad]. I think if you combine all the regulars, he's beat them. He's amazing."

Conrad homered on a first-pitch fastball from Astros closer Matt Lindstrom, after Alex Gonzalez singled to start the inning. Conrad's six homers this season have all come in 77 at-bats against right-handers, including a pair of pinch-hit grand slams.

The three-run rally in the ninth was the last swing on an emotional night for the Braves.

They rallied after blowing a late lead on the road, and after seeing their 38-year-old third baseman writhing in pain as he lay on the field. Jones was attended to by Braves trainer Jeff Porter who helped him up before Jones hobbled off the field and down the dugout steps.

In 1994 as a rookie, Jones tore the anterior cruciate ligament in his left knee during spring training and missed the entire season after surgery.

"It's hurt," he said afterward. "I heard a distinct pop. I don't think it's my ACL, 'cause when I did it before it sounded like my knee exploded. It sounded like the whole stadium could hear it pop. While I did here it pop [Tuesday] it wasn't the same pop. That's something you don't forget.

"But I've got a very distinct pain on the lower left side of my knee. Just got to wait for the MRI."

He fielded Hunter Pence's grounder leading off the sixth inning. Jones gloved it near the third-base line, leaped and made a strong throw to first.  When he landed, he crumpled.

"You just hope it's not the rest of the year," Braves catcher Brian McCann said. "From his reaction it looked like … I don't know what's going to happen. We just hope for the best. It's all we can hope for. It's going to be hard if we lose our 3-hole hitter."

Jones has enjoyed a hitting resurgence since mid-June, batting .304 with 10 doubles and seven home runs over 43 games, including a .407 average with three homers in his past seven games before Tuesday.

"I don't know the extent [of his injury], but we're hoping the best for him," Conrad said. "He goes down like that, it's tough. But we pulled through and won the game. It's really huge."

His fourth-inning double was the Braves' only hit through six innings Tuesday, before Glaus drove in a run with a seventh-inning single for a 1-0 lead. Astros starter J.A. Happ, the former Philadelphia left-hander, issued two walks before Glaus' single to right field.

Jurrjens took a five-hit shutout to the bottom of the eighth, when the bottom fell out on the Braves for the second night in a row. They gave up six runs in a mistake-plagued seventh inning in Monday's 10-4 loss.

This time, the Braves  were able to bounce back.

"Every win is big, and my job is to try to go out there and keep my team in the game," Jurrjens said. "If I get a W it's good, but the main thing is for the team to get a W. Today was a big game for us, and a big W."

Michael Bourn led off the Astros' eighth with a triple. One out later he scored on Jeff Keppinger's fielder's choice grounder to shortstop Alex Gonzalez, who went to his knees fielding it, then threw home slightly off-target to McCann.

Keppinger was credited with an RBI and Gonzalez with an error – his sixth in 11 games – to allow the runner to advance to second.

"It’s a difficult situation, especially when you see your teammates behind you the whole game," Jurrjens said. "It's a difficult moment. You want to suppress a lot of emotions, because you know your teammates are trying to do all they can out there behind me and behind all the pitchers.

"It was just a difficult play. He tried to do all he could. Thank God Brooksy came back and hit a big home run."

After an intentional walk to Hunter Pence, reliever Peter Moylan was brought in to face Carlos Lee. He hit a soft grounder to Gonzalez, who tossed to second base to start what they thought could be an inning-ending double play.

The throw wasn't perfect but was catchable. Second baseman Omar Infante didn't catch it, and was charged with an error as a run scored to  put the Astros ahead, 2-1.

But the Braves still had three outs to make something happen. And they had Conrad, who's had a season sprinkled with dramatic, late-inning hits and home runs. He got another one Tuesday.