SEATTLE — With his right knee hurting again in recent days, Chipper Jones was out of the Braves’ lineup Wednesday afternoon.
Manager Fredi Gonzalez wanted to rest the veteran third baseman so he would have two days off before the next game. The Braves are off Thursday before a three-game series against Baltimore starts Friday at Turner Field.
Jones has played with a small meniscus tear in his right knee and wants to avoid arthroscopic surgery that likely would sideline him two to three weeks.
“It’s bugging me again,” said Jones, who is 3-for-26 with one double and two RBIs in his past six games. “If you’ve got torn meniscus, you’ve got torn meniscus. There’s not a lot you can do about it. Just have to stay on top of it.
“If I have to go on the DL for it, I’ll probably get the surgery. But if can avoid it, I’d rather not [have surgery].”
With Martin Prado on the disabled list, Jones is committed to playing through the injury as long as he can. Prado has been out three weeks recovering from a staph infection in his right calf.
Prado had surgery to clean out the infection and awaits clearance to begin running. Even if Prado resumes running and other baseball activities this week, it’s uncertain if he’ll be ready to return before the All-Star break.
Hanson wins in return
It took Tommy Hanson a couple of innings to shake off the rust, but the Braves right-hander settled down and won Tuesday night against Seattle in his first start back from the disabled list. He has won his past four starts.
Hanson (9-4) was charged with six hits, three runs and three walks in six innings of Tuesday’s 5-4 win. He spent 15 days on the DL with rotator-cuff tendinitis in his shoulder and came back without making any rehab starts.
The big right-hander looked rusty early, giving up a home run to Ichiro Suzuki on the first pitch he threw. He allowed another run in the second when two of the first three batters doubled.
“I have checkpoints throughout my windup — get to this point, separate your hands, get to this point,” Hanson said. “Everything kind of feels normal when I’m locked in, and at first I really didn’t feel that way.
“I felt like I was trying to rush to home plate and really get going. I felt a lot more comfortable once I realized that and tried to slow down a little bit and get down in the zone.”
Jack Cust homered in the fourth inning to push the lead to 3-0, but Hanson retired the side in order in the fifth and sixth as the Braves mounted their comeback.
“Once he got the ball down, he was cruising,” Braves catcher Brian McCann said. “But they came out aggressive. They had a good game plan early, and we countered after we figured out what they were trying to do.”
Kimbrel surpasses Rocker
When Craig Kimbrel struck out the side in the ninth inning for his 21st save Monday, he reached 100 career strikeouts earlier than any Braves pitcher in history. Then he kept mowing down Mariners for the rest of the series.
Kimbrel had saves in all three games at Seattle, collecting seven strikeouts while allowing one hit and no walks in three scoreless innings. He got his 23rd save Wednesday, extending his own National League rookie record for saves before the All-Star break.
He needs three saves to match Boston closer Jonathan Papelbon’s 2006 major league rookie record of 26 saves before the All-Star break.
Kimbrel recorded his 100th strikeout in 59 1/3 career innings of regular-season work, and now has 105 strikeouts in 61 2/3 innings. John Rocker of the Braves reached 100 strikeouts in 70 innings in 1998-99.
