POSTED BY Coley Ward ON 11:15 am, July 23, 2006 - POSTED IN News reel
Just when it looked like the Braves were primed to pull off a worst to first finish, the team gets some more bad news. The Jones boys are hurt — Chipper and Andruw.
Chipper is suffering from a strained oblique, while Andruw is experiencing tightness in between his shoulder Blades, according to the AJC. First, the dirt on Chipper:
[Chipper] hurt his side on a swing in the first inning Friday night, but he stayed in the game and singled in the fourth to stretch his hitting streak to a career-best 20 games.
“I tried to kill the ball and it took the breath out of me,” Jones said. “I was concerned [Friday night]. I think it will be better in a couple of days.
“I got a few rounds of treatment in [Saturday], which was good, and didn’t miss a game. Hopefully, I’ll have a restful night and we’ll see how I feel. But it hurt.”
During his hitting streak, which featured a record-tying 14 consecutive games with an extra-base hit, Jones is batting .512 (42-for-82) with eight home runs and 24 RBIs.
Asked if he thought Jones would miss the rest of the Phillies series, Cox said, “It’s day-to-day. Chipper heals pretty fast. I don’t know. I really can’t tell you.”
Now here’s what they’re saying about Anruw:
“It kept getting stiffer and stiffer during the game, and I woke up feeling really bad,” Jones said. “I’ll take a muscle relaxer and see how it feels [Sunday].
“If it’s not OK, I’ll probably sit out. I don’t want to go out there and mess my swing up. I feel good with my swing right now.”
Andruw Jones has been almost as hot as Chipper Jones. In his past 11 games, Andruw Jones is batting .333 with six homers and 20 RBIs. He had five hits, including two homers, and six RBIs on Tuesday in St. Louis.
Neither of these injuries sound very serious, but at this time of year, considering how much ground the Braves have to make up, they can’t afford to be playing without their stars for even short stretches of time.
