Braves Notes: Chipper Jones Fighting His Way Back

NEW YORK -- Chipper Jones has no intention of allowing his strained right oblique muscle to keep him out for the remainder of the season.

In fact, after taking a few swings in the Shea Stadium batting cage on Wednesday evening, the Braves third baseman hinted he might return to the lineup this weekend.

"Left-handed, it felt good," the switch-hitting Jones said. "Right-handed, it's still a little sore. [I'll] take the day off [on Thursday], and then hopefully be ready this weekend, hopefully Friday."

Jones strained his oblique muscle while making a throw during batting practice at Shea on Monday night. The ailment has forced him to miss the entirety of this three-game series, which the Braves knew they needed to sweep to have even the faintest prayer of catching the Mets in the National League East.

When the Braves lost Monday's series opener, at least a few of Jones' teammates weren't willing to offer him much sympathy. Some of this frustration stems from his injury history—and the fact that he didn't play more than 110 games in either of the past two seasons.

While Jones knows the Braves will likely have to win out to capture the NL Wild Card, he also believes that testing the oblique during the series against the Mets may have sidelined him for the remainder of the season.

"If I'd have gone ahead and played, I'd have probably set myself back a couple weeks," said Jones, who saw a left oblique strain account for two of his three DL stints last season.

As the Braves prepare for Friday's series opener against the Nationals at RFK Stadium, Jones' most telling test might come when he attempts to make throws across the diamond from the third-base side.

Because he suffered the injury on a seemingly normal throw, Jones wants to wait as long as possible before testing his throwing motion.

Dotel update: Encouraged by a bullpen session that he completed on Tuesday, Octavio Dotel plans to test his right shoulder again on Friday. Because he's in the final guaranteed year of his current contract, the right-handed reliever believes it's necessary that he pitches again before the end of the season.

A strained right shoulder has kept Dotel sidelined since Aug. 7th.

If Friday's bullpen session goes well, Dotel said he'd like to be immediately removed from the DL. But given the amount of time he's missed, Braves manager Bobby Cox said Dotel will need more work before returning to action.

After being acquired from the Royals in exchange for pitcher Kyle Davies on July 31, Dotel made just five appearances for the Braves. Before Tuesday, it had been more than two weeks since he'd previously completed a bullpen session.

Dotel's contract includes a $5.5 million mutual option for the 2008 season.

Lineup adjustments: With Jones out of the lineup the past two days, Cox has opted to return Kelly Johnson to the leadoff spot that he manned for the first three months of the season. Johnson was removed from the leadoff role soon after he started platooning with Yunel Escobar at second base.

The move came despite the fact that Johnson hit .284 with a .389 on-base percentage as a leadoff hitter. But while he was going through a rough stretch in June, Willie Harris was surging.

After June 22nd, Harris batted leadoff role when the Braves were facing a right-handed starter. By hitting just .219 with a .317 on-base percentage in 62 games since June 26th, though, Harris has provided plenty of reason to be moved down or even out of the lineup.

Against Mets right-hander John Maine on Wednesday, Cox opted to sit Harris and utilize Matt Diaz as his left fielder. Diaz, who's hitting .365 since April 25th, hadn't started a game against a right-hander since Maine faced the Braves on Aug. 31st.

Divided power: This year's Braves team is the first in franchise history to have nine different players collect as many as 10 homers in a season. But unless Chipper Jones and Andruw Jones catch fire over the next few weeks, this also might be the first time since 1997 that the Braves haven't had a player hit at least 30 homers.

Entering Wednesday, Chipper Jones led the team with 25 homers, and Andruw Jones was second with 24. Since coming off the DL on June 13th, Chipper has homered once every 22.69 at-bats.

If the third baseman weren't battling an oblique injury, his chances of reaching 30 would be increased by the fact that he'd homered in three of the five games preceding Monday's setback.

As for Andruw, it looks like this will be just the second time in an eight-season span that he doesn't hit at least 30 homers. He hit 29 in 2004, followed by a career-best 51 the next season.

Coming up: The Braves begin a three-game series against the Nationals on Friday night at 7:05 ET. They'll send lefty Chuck James (10-10, 4.21 ERA) to the mound to oppose Matt Chico (5-8, 4.61).