Chipper closes in on 100 RBIs again

ATLANTA - By the All-Star break, Chipper Jones had given up on the idea of another 100-RBI season.

His leg was hurting. He had switched positions. His average was barely above .200.

``I wasn't even thinking about it,'' Jones said. ``I put 100 RBIs out of my mind. I just went out and started playing.''

And guess what happened? Jones put together such a sizzling second half for the Atlanta Braves that he's in position to keep his streak alive going to the final weekend of the regular season.

Sammy Sosa is the only NL player to put up nine straight 100-RBI seasons, but Jones can match the Chicago Cubs slugger by driving in four runs in the last three games which are at Wrigley Field, no less.

Jones insists that he's not concerned with 100 RBIs as much as getting ready for the playoffs. The Braves won their 13th straight division title and will likely open the postseason at home next week.

With that in mind, Jones didn't start Wednesday's day game against the New York Mets, and the Braves were off Thursday.

``I'm exhausted,'' said Jones, who cooled off (4-for-28) during a nine-game homestand. ``For my own physical and mental well-being going into the playoffs, I needed a couple of days to kind of re-energize myself. We've got a big series coming up in Chicago. It's going to feel like the playoffs.''

Jones, though, is keenly aware of baseball history and his place in it. After putting up 86 RBIs as a rookie in 1995, he's reached triple figures every season since then.

If he can get to 100 this season, Jones will have a chance to set a new NL record in 2005. Sosa, who had 78 RBIs with four games remaining, wasn't able to keep his run going.

Speaking of streaks ending, Jones' average has tailed off to a career-low .247 a galling number for someone who's such a student of the art of hitting. He had batted over .300 six years in a row.

Otherwise, the 32-year-old Jones can't complain about the way things worked out.

``It's been a roller-coaster ride all the way,'' he said. ``I'm happy with the way I bounced back. My average is not where I want it to be, but I bounced back from a power standpoint (30 homers) and I bounced back from a run-production standpoint. All in all, I've had a pretty respectable year.''

It sure didn't start out that way.

Jones strained his right hamstring in April, a painful injury that put him on the disabled list for the first time since 1996. Chasing down balls in left field, he felt the leg tightening at the slightest effort. He finally went to manager Bobby Cox and asked to be moved back to third base, the position Jones played the first seven years of his career.

``That's the biggest reason for my turnaround,'' Jones said. ``Obviously, if I had stayed in left field, I wouldn't have stayed healthy. My at-bats would have been limited. But I moved back to third base, played some pretty good defense, and it got me into the game mentally.''

Jones was a huge upgrade over Mark DeRosa, who had been the starting third baseman. And the players who took over in left, Eli Marrero and rookie Charles Thomas, have combined to hit .297 with 14 homers and 64 RBIs.

Jones returned to third base on June 15 and has been there ever since. It hardly seems coincidental that the Braves, who struggled the first three months right along with Jones, turned things around not long after he changed positions.

``Everybody knows he wasn't happy with the way he played in the first half,'' outfielder J.D. Drew said. ``He kept battling, kept swinging and really had a great second half for us. He got us to where we needed to be.''

Jones and closer John Smoltz are the only holdovers from the lone World Series champion during this run of division titles, the 1995 Braves. Both are especially proud of this team, which was picked by most to finish no better than third in the NL East after losing four key players because of budget cuts.

With that in mind, Jones isn't quite sure how Atlanta will do in the playoffs. There's a lot of guys around the clubhouse who don't have playoff experience, not to mention a pitching staff that's not nearly as dominant as it's been in past years.

``We can be very good or we can be awful,'' Jones said. ``We're not going to blow people out. That's obvious. To have a chance, we're going to have to come from behind in some games, play good defense and win a lot of close games.''

Coming from a guy who knows a thing or two about hanging on, that's good advice.