"Chipper Jones was out of the lineup for the third straight game Thursday night - this time missing his "Bobblehead Night" - since straining his right quadriceps muscle on Monday night. He is likely to miss another day or two.

"Conservatively-speaking yes," said Jones, who'd like to return sooner but said he's playing it safe rather than risk it getting worse. "We can ill afford for me to go back on the DL at this point."

After he pinch hit for the third straight game Thursday night and continued to feel improvement with treatment, it gave Braves manager Fredi Gonzalez cause to believe Jones might be able to return before the weekend series with the Marlins is out.

"We'll keep evaluating him," Gonzalez said. "Maybe this weekend we'll get him in to play."

Jones underwent an MRI on his right quadriceps muscle Thursday afternoon and said he was told he had "a little blood dispersed throughout the muscle."

"We've just got to take some time to get it out of there," Jones said.

Based on how it felt, though, he said he was seeing improvement with treatment.

"It's better than it was a couple days ago," Jones said. "It's still sore. Could I play if it was October? Yeah probably. But better to be safe than sorry still at this point in the season."

Jones injured his quadriceps the night he returned from missing 16 games following arthroscopic knee surgery. He hurt it fielding a ground ball from Neil Walker, who surprised the Braves infielders by swinging at a pitch-out."