Chipper Jones helps Atlanta Braves escape slump as September begins - MLB Update
With the month of September starting, the Atlanta Braves were conscious of how they are going to be put under pressure by the claims that they are heading to meet the same disaster that they came across last year around the same time period.
Their recent losing streak fuelled concerns of the management and led the experts to draw similarities between last year and the current season.
There is every reason to believe if they did not win Sunday’s game against the Philadelphia Phillies their confidence would have been seriously shaken and that may have meant a repetition of last year’s September collapse.
Therefore the kind of situation they faced they needed someone like Chipper Jones to get rid of the decline and return to their winning ways. Jones obliged by hitting a walk-off home-run against the Phillies under the pressure cooker situation as he led
the Braves to a stunning victory.
All through the game the Braves were the underdogs as the Phillies posted a substantial lead from the start and maintained it for the greater part of the match. By the time Jones stepped on the plate a victory was the unlikeliest of outcomes for Atlanta.
More than just the victory, the game had a positive psychological ramification for the team. The Braves will be heading to play the upcoming matches now with an optimistic approach.
Meanwhile, Braves’ manager Fredi Gonzalez is all-praise for Jones and believes whenever the team needs him he steps up and never misses the opportunity to fascinate the fans.
“He comes up big at times when you need somebody to come up big,” Fredi Gonzalez said. “Unbelievable. He is what he is. He’s going to be a Hall-of-Famer. Not too many guys can do that kind of stuff. Thank God that we got in that position to make him do that.”
Similarly the catcher David Ross terms the victory an unbelievable one considering the lead the Phillies maintained for the most part of the game. Speaking about Jones, he says the 40-year-old hits as if he is just 22.
“Chipper Jones, the guy plays like he’s 22,” David Ross said. “Everybody [in the dugout] was just like, ‘I can’t believe we won the game. That’s unbelievable.”
The Braves will be looking to keep the momentum that Jones has provided intact for the rest of the month.
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