Chipper's walk-off vs. Phillies caps wild night

But the walk up the first-base line was about something else.

“I only did that because of what [Carlos] Ruiz did,” Jones said.

Jones and the Braves didn’t like the bat flip by the Phillies catcher after he hit a three-run home run in the seventh inning to put the Phillies up 9-8. They didn’t like the extended walk Ruiz took toward first. So they weren’t going to let his two doubles, home run, and a career-high seven RBIs define the night.

After losing eight consecutive games to their National League East-rival Phillies, dating to last season, including the three-game sweep in September that sent the Braves home from the playoffs, the Braves finally had an answer.

And Jones, who joined Rockies first baseman Jason Giambi to become the first two 40-somethings to hit walk-off home runs on the same night, wasn’t thinking about protecting his knees as he tossed his helmet and headed for a dirt-rubbing reception at the plate. Neither were his teammates.

Trying to be ginger?

“I wanted to punch him in his face,” Brian McCann said.

He meant it in a good way — in the same way Michael Bourn meant it when he accidentally poked McCann in the eye, trying to celebrate McCann’s grand slam off Roy Halladay to help the Braves erase the last of a 6-0 deficit. McCann had to make a visit to the eye doctor Thursday morning on his way to the ballpark, but didn’t seem to mind too much.

“It was in the moment,” said McCann, who got some drops for a scratch on the outside of his eye, but is otherwise OK. “I’ll take that every day of the week to do that.”

The Braves’ attempts at celebrating Wednesday were as whacky as the game itself. They became the second team in the past 30 years to rally from separate deficits of six or more runs and four or more. (Seattle did it to defeat the Rockies in 1997.) It was a lot to keep up with.

Dan Uggla completely lost track at one point. He jumped on Freddie Freeman’s back as Freeman came off the field after a sacrifice fly to put the Braves up 13-12 ... in the eighth inning.

“I thought it was the ninth inning,” Uggla said. “I was like ‘Why am I the only one out here?”

Freeman broke the news to him with, “get off me. It’s the eighth.”

Freeman was still laughing about it Thursday morning, but it’s hard to blame Uggla too much when even the scoreboard operator lost track. The center-field video board at Turner Field still read like it was the 10th inning when Uggla led off the bottom of the 11th with a single.

“I don’t even know who started the game,” Braves manager Fredi Gonzalez quipped afterward.

(For the record, it was Tommy Hanson.)

Gonzalez finished the game with pitcher Tim Hudson at his side in the dugout, with a bat in his hand. The Braves had used all of their position players and were about to send Thursday’s starter Randall Delgado into the game to pitch the 12th.

Gonzalez said he and Hudson were working through scenarios.

If Jones singled and there were runners on first and third, Gonzalez figured Phillies manager Charlie Manuel would walk shortstop Jack Wilson to load the bases for Hudson.

So their exchange went something like this:

Gonzalez: “If you go up there with the bases loaded, you ain’t swinging. You’ve got to take three [pitches].”

Hudson: “What do you mean?”

Gonzalez: “I don’t want you hitting into a double play. I’d rather take a chance with one out with [Jason] Heyward at the plate.”

Hudson: “Well, can I get hit with the pitch and get the game-winner?”

Gonzalez: “Yeah, but make sure you get hit in the [expletive].”

Somewhere in the middle of all that, Jones had just missed a home run by about 10 feet, foul down the right-field line. In his head, he heard the words “don’t strike out.”

Jones said that’s what he usually does after coming so close to a home run on an inside pitch. So he bore down, took a pitch high to work the count full, and started looking away, thinking if any pitch comes inside he could just fight it off.

Next pitch from reliever Brian Sanches — fastball away, and he’s taking off toward first base.

“That’s a treat for all of us in here,” McCann said afterward. “What he’s done for his career, what he’s meant to this organization, to this city. That was one of the coolest moments I’ve had on the baseball field.”

The Braves moved to 11-2 in games that Jones started. They’re 4-9 on the days he and his knee needs a rest. He was asked if nights such as Wednesday made him want to rethink retirement after the season.

“No,” Jones said with a wry smile, dirt still caked on the back of his neck, as the clubhouse clock approached midnight. “Nights like tonight make me want to go to bed.”