Cardinals Win, and Jones Plays His Last

ATLANTA — Chipper Jones was driving to the ballpark Friday when he turned to his parents and told them that, for once, he felt none of the nerves that always have churned at the dawn of a postseason with the Atlanta Braves.

There would be no distraction, he said, from reflecting about the highs, mediums and lows of a Hall of Fame career that could end just hours later.

“I’m one of those guys who likes to look out the front windshield, not the rearview mirror,” he observed at a pregame news conference.

For Jones, that windshield became bug-splattered in baseball’s inaugural wild-card game.

The St. Louis Cardinals, who seem to heat up when the winds start to carry a chill, carried their late-season roll into the playoffs, winning, 6-3, at Turner Field through some fault of the Braves’ beloved ringleader and a dollop of umpiring controversy.

The Braves threatened with two runners in scoring position and one out in the eighth inning when Andrelton Simmons sent a lazy pop-up into short left field. The ball was dropped, but the infield fly rule was invoked, much to the consternation of Braves manager Fredi Gonzalez, who ranted at the umps that the ball had sailed beyond the customary zone for which the rule is applied.

A normally even-tempered Atlanta crowd pelted the field with liquid containers, causing a 19-minute delay. When play resumed, a walk that filled the bases was followed by Michael Bourn’s strikeout.

While slugger Albert Pujols (relocated) no longer casts a long shadow from the batter’s box and manager Tony LaRussa (retired) from the dugout steps, St. Louis, the defending World Series champion, commence a best-of-five set Sunday with the Washington Nationals at home in the National League Division Series round.

Though he was the esteemed elder in Friday’s game, Jones, 40, had reason to be coping with a deeper caldron of emotions than any other player. Having announced his intention to retire after the season, he felt a double dose of looming finality entering the knockout game.

Jones bowed out with a 1-for-5 night, his farewell at-bat a broken-bat infield hit with two outs in the ninth that breathed life into the Braves.

Jones’s forgettable night was compounded by a throwing error that established an unwanted template for Atlanta. Two subsequent misfires by infielders enabled St. Louis to accumulate six runs after only three hits.

The outcome not only pulled the shade on Jones’s remarkable run of 19 seasons, but another that lasted an incredible 23 games.

The Braves could have lengthened their streak of wins on starts by pitcher Kris Medlen to two-dozen, one made all the more implausible by it beginning two years ago before he underwent Tommy John surgery. Medlen then worked extensively out of the bullpen, including some this season, and would have remained in the role if not for injuries to two starters.

Winning pitcher Kyle Lohse yielded two runs in nearly six innings, a contrast to his previous encounter with the Braves in late May that became both a low point and a blessing.

Torched by five runs in five innings of a 10-7 loss, he altered his delivery out of concern that pitches were being tipped off. Rather than bringing hands to chest before delivery, he now extends them overhead. Whether the impact was real or illusory, Lohse has been stifling since, and his 0-3 career record and 7.13 earned-run average in previous playoffs were rendered moot.

He and Medlen opened the game equally bullish, each striking out two in the first inning.

Braves right fielder Justin Heyward kept it scoreless in the second, using every bit of his 6-foot-5 frame for a leaping catch at the fence to deny Yadier Molina an apparent home run.

Baseball’s postseason is defined partly by turning little-known players into impactful ones, and this year’s wasted little time in doing so.

Braves catcher David Ross, pressed into duty because of the six-time all-star Brian McCann’s shoulder injury that has depressed his output, lofted a two-run homer in the second inning. Throughout Medlen’s oppressive stretch, such a lead has often been sufficient.

A fielding faux pas by, of all people, Jones was vital in the visitors assuming a 3-2 lead in the fourth.

Jones, whose glove work enhances his credentials for Cooperstown, collected a one-hopper by Matt Holliday on what seemed an inevitable double-play grounder. But his errant throw to second base veered into right field.

Allen Craig followed with a double to the wall in left field, leveling the score. Yadier Molina’s groundout pushed Craig to third, and he touched home on David Freese’s sacrifice fly.

Holliday’s homer in the sixth put the Braves in a 4-2 hole, dashing the home team’s hope of turning over a late lead to its meritorious relief staff.

Instead, St. Louis padded its advantage to 6-2 in the seventh on wayward throws by second baseman Uggla and shortstop Simmons after each gathered up ground balls.

Atlanta drew to within 6-3 in the seventh when Jose Constanza tripled and scored.

The Braves’ eighth bubbled with potential, but, with the infield fly call, petered out.

Jones dug into the batter’s box dirt with two out in the ninth to an ovation that he recognized by doffing his helmet. As fans chanted his first name and popping flashbulbs turned the scene into a light show, he stroked a grounder that seemed destined to become the last out but became an infield hit.

Jones wound up at third after a double, but the game ended on Uggla’s groundout.