"For the first four months of the 2011 season, Braves manager Fredi Gonzalez meticulously made a point never to give both Chipper Jones and Brian McCann a day off on the same day.

He did it only four times in the first 103 games, and three of those were on days Jones was battling an injury.

But when McCann went down with a strained oblique last week and Jones suffered a quadriceps strain the night he came back from arthroscopic knee surgery, Gonzalez had no choice but to make out his lineup without his No. 3 and 4 hitters for the past eight games.

In that time the Braves have gone 4-4 and dropped two games in the standings to fall a season-high eight games behind the Phillies entering Thursday night. Entering the weekend series with the Mets, their lead in the wild-card standings was down to 2 1/2 games.

Injuries haven't been the only issue, but they've been a glaring one. And Jones wants to remedy the situation Friday in New York, when he hopes to return to the lineup for only the second time in 23 games."