His bruised left hand was still black and blue around the thumb, but Braves third baseman Chipper Jones said it was good enough for him to play in the home opener Friday against Washington.
"It feels a lot better," he said during batting practice Friday, two days after being scratched from the lineup for the series-ending loss at Philadelphia. "I sure wouldn't want to sit this one out. But if I was going to hurt it again, sitting out would have to be an option." After testing it out from both sides of the plate, the switch-hitter decided re-injury was unlikely.
Left fielder Garret Anderson (strained calf) was out for the second consecutive game, and manager Bobby Cox said Anderson could miss the rest of the Nationals series.
Jones and Anderson were scratched Wednesday at Philadelphia. Jones was jammed by an inside pitch in the Braves' final Grapefruit League game in Florida, then said he got jammed similarly a couple of more times in the past week.
When Cox announced Friday that Jones was back in the lineup, a reporter asked if Jones' hand was still discolored around the thumb and index finger, as it was Wednesday.
"I didn't look at it [Friday]," Cox said. "He just said, 'I'm in there.' "
Cox usually trusts the judgment of Jones, who'll be 37 in two weeks, when it comes to the injury-plagued third baseman deciding he's ready to play.
The Braves have a far better team in recent seasons with Jones in the lineup. Before Friday, he had a .356 batting average with 71 homers, 229 RBIs, a .448 on-base percentage and a superb 1.077 on-base plus slugging percentage (OPS) in 313 games since June 26, 2006.
The Braves were 164-149 in those games, and 41-59 in games Jones missed during that period.
