NEW YORK — A seemingly bad call and yet another serious injury to an outfielder should have ruined Friday night’s series-opener for the Braves at Citi Field, but they have an ace in the hole when it comes to the Mets.
Chipper Jones may be 39 years old with a host of nagging ailments, but he’s long on muscle memory against the Mets, and Friday night he was long to left field, too.
Jones’ solo home run to the second deck in left field helped the Braves rally from two runs down with six outs to go for a 6-3 win over the Mets.
He quieted Mets fans who had booed him all night for old-times sake. He also gave his teammates some ideas. Eric Hinske hit the game-winning solo home run off Mets closer Francisco Rodriguez with one out in the ninth. Freddie Freeman followed with a two-run double on a 3-for-5 night at the plate and his fifth multi-hit game in his past six games.
"They’ve always provided me incentive to try and make left turns at first base instead of rights," said Jones, who moved past Hank Aaron for the fourth most home runs all-time against the Mets with 46. "...Any number bigger then three or four runs for us is really good right now, and we saved our best for last.”
Craig Kimbrel came on to record his 17th save, setting a National League record for saves by a rookie before the All-Star break.
Hinske gave the Braves a lift on a night he wasn’t even scheduled to play. Hinske had to replace Jordan Schafer in the fifth inning after Schafer fouled a bunt attempt off his face. Schafer was at a New York area hospital undergoing X-rays on his lip and nose area when Hinske connected for his sixth home run of the season to start the three-run ninth inning.
"Matty Young made a first pitch out and I thought maybe he was going to try to get strike one with the fastball," Hinske said. "Maybe he’s thinking I’m going to take a pitch and try to work the count and get on base. I was thinking I was going to try to ambush him and get something out over the plate to hit and it worked out."
The Braves figure a little redemption evened the game 3-3 in the eighth inning after Jones’ home run narrowed the gap to one. Mets shortstop Jose Reyes, whom the Braves believe had gotten a gift of a triple to start a three-run Mets rally in the fourth inning, let a ball slip under his glove allowing the tying run to score.
Dan Uggla drew a two-out walk off reliever Jason Isringhausen, advanced to second on a wild pitch and scored on Reyes’ error.
Four innings earlier, Jones thought he had tagged the Mets’ speedy leadoff hitter on the chest before he slid head-first in to third base in the fourth inning, but home plate umpire Lance Barksdale ruled Reyes safe with a triple. The Mets took immediate advantage of a runner at third with nobody out for a three-run outburst.
Four of the next five Mets hitters hit balls hard off Derek Lowe, and the Mets helped themselves to a 3-1 lead on RBI singles by Carlos Beltran, Daniel Murphy and Angel Pagan.
"I knew he was out," Jones said. "(Mets third base coach) Chip Hale knew he was out. Unfortunately (home plate umpire) Lance Barksdale didn’t. It’s unfortunate for D-Lowe too because he had one bad inning and that was it. I’ll take it now that we scored three in the ninth. That makes everything better.”
Jones drew the Braves within a run on a moon shot of a homer to lead off the eighth inning off Mets starter Jonathon Niese. He has five home runs now this season, and that was his first since May 12 against the Nationals.
“That’s all I got right there,” said Jones, who homered on a 2-2 pitch. “The more impressive hack was the curveball emergency hack right before it (to foul it off) because I was out. I'm sure he didn’t bury that next one in the way he wanted to. Gotta feed a guy a bone every once in a while.”
Lowe had struggled with control problems in each of his previous two starts, but looked to be back in good form his first time through the Mets order Friday night. He needed only 11, 12 and nine pitches respectively to work through the first three innings, allowing only a single to Josh Thole.
Lowe gave up three runs in six innings on only 75 pitches before he was pulled for a pinch hitter in the seventh.
"It was a forgettable game from my standpoint but it didn’t spiral out of control either," Lowe said. "...Big home runs and just a good win. We’ve got a long road trip right here. You’re trying to win every series and this is a great start. We’ve got JJ (Jair Jurrjens) going tomorrow so we feel pretty good about our chances as far as winning the series.”
Schafer dropped to the ground in pain on his bunt attempt leading off the fifth inning, but eventually walked off on his own power with an ice pack on his face, escorted by Braves trainer Jeff Porter.
He could become the third Braves’ outfield casualty in less than two weeks. Nate McLouth (oblique) and Jason Heyward (shoulder) are already on the disabled list, and neither appears close to a return. Schafer underwent X-Rays and a CT Scan at a New York hospital and the Braves didn't expect to have an official announcement on his prognosis until Saturday.
