Game Recap #25 Chicago Cubs @ Atlanta Braves

Very few players in sports nowadays stay with one team throughout their entire career. Motivations to move along from the only team players have ever known can be money, better life for their families, closer to their homes, or any other reason. Even fewer players have the ability to decide when they will retire. Despite many recent injuries and a fading skill set, Chipper Jones falls into both categories. He has played for the Atlanta Braves for every game in his career, since its outset in 1993, a year before my own birth. Throughout his career, he has been a symbol of solidarity at the hot corner for the Braves, and a very reliable ballplayer with outstanding stats in a considerable number of categories. Tonight, we have the pleasure of seeing Jones in his final lap through the season with the Braves as they host the Chicago Cubs. Immediately, Jones gave us something to look at when he singled in Michael Bourn in the first inning to open the scoring and put a stain on Chris Volstad's day. Bourn had gotten aboard on a walk. Right after that, Jones had one of the two stolen bases in the game today, as he swiped second, no easy feat for a deteriorating forty year old. Chicago would be the next to strike though, getting to Atlanta starter Jair Jurrjens in the third inning after a bit of spotty defense. The rally started with a David DeJesus single, and things turned ugly when Dan Uggla committed a throwing error during Starlin Castro's at-bat, which got DeJesus home. Anthony Rizzo then reached on a fielder's choice, and two batters later, Castro came home on a Bryan LaHair single, and he was followed in on the next play, as Steve Clevenger singled Rizzo home. Things were smooth from there until the fifth, when Jurrjens worked out of a jam as Alfonso Soriano singled his way aboard and stole second base, the other steal in the game. He retired the next three batters, and that turned things back to Volstad, who was not so lucky to work out of his jam. He surrendered singles to Brian McCann and Andrelton Simmons before walking pinch-hitter Eric Hinske, who hit for his pitcher Jurrjens, effectively ending his day. The scoring started as Bourn tripled all three of McCann, Simmons, and Hinske home, before scoring himself on a sacrifice fly by Martin Prado. With the bases clean, Jason Heyward took Volstad out of the game on a solo home run. A Jones double was all reliever Manuel Corpas would give up here before finishing the inning. Jones had gone 3 for 3 at this point, with two singles and a double. Volstad's line read 4 1/3 innings, giving up seven hits and two walks to yield six earned runs while striking out three, while Jurrjens was slightly cleaner at five innings, nine hits and no walks to produce three runs, none of which were earned, while fanning two. While Corpas was effective for pitching, the next reliever, Rafael Dolis, had a messy third of an inning, walking McCann before getting Simmons on board with a fielder's choice to get rid of McCann, and then he walked both Braves reliever Kris Medlen (more on him in a second) and Bourn. Jairo Asencio took over for Dolis, but it might as well have been the same person, as Asencio walked Prado to force in Simmons, and two batters later gave up Jones' second double and fourth hit of the night that scored Medlen, Bourn, and Prado. Two more walks were issued by Asencio, as Freddie Freeman and Uggla reloaded the bases, but McCann made his second out and the team's third out of the inning to end any further conflict. The next hit for either team came in the eighth inning, and naturally, it was the star of the show tonight, Jones, with a single, good for his fifth hit of the evening. It should be noted that after that jam in the sixth, Asencio, as well as Medlen (three perfect innings of relief) and Jonny Venters (one hit in the ninth) kept things relatively clean. The final would wrap up at 10-3, handing Jurrjens the win and Volstad the loss, but all eyes were on the man they call Chipper tonight with a vintage performance so indicative of what has made him an icon of Atlanta sports for the past 20 years.