MIAMI — Chipper Jones and the Atlanta Braves are looking forward to playing in the Florida Marlins’ new ballpark next year, especially after this difficult loss.
Jones lost Emilio Bonifacio’s two-out chopper in the lights before Omar Infante hit a game-ending homer off rookie closer Craig Kimbrel, giving the Marlins a 6-5 victory Monday night.
“You play baseball in a football stadium, I guess that happens from time to time, but it’s just extremely bad timing,” Jones said. “It’s a pretty helpless feeling when the game should be over and I had no clue where the ball was when it bounced.”
Atlanta now has dropped three of four, and its NL wild-card lead is down to 2½ games over surging St. Louis, which beat Roy Halladay and the Phillies 4-3 in Philadelphia. The Braves have eight games remaining, compared to nine for the Cardinals.
“It’s a funny game,” Jones said. “Just when you think you’ve got it figured out, it’ll kick you in the gut.”
The Marlins have five games left at Sun Life Stadium, which also houses the Miami Dolphins and Miami Hurricanes football teams.
They will move into their own ballpark next season.
“I’ve seen it here a lot,” said Braves manager Fredi Gonzalez, a former Marlins skipper. “When they configure the stadium to play football, they change the lights and sometimes that happens.”
Kimbrel came in to preserve Atlanta’s 5-4 lead and retired the first two batters he faced. Then Bonifacio reached and Infante drove a 1-0 pitch to deep left for his first game-ending homer.
“Anytime you don’t get your job done, of course you’re frustrated,” Kimbrel said.
Infante’s sixth homer of the season came against his former team and handed Kimbrel (4-3) his seventh blown save opportunity in 52 chances.
“I’m just happy I hit the homer that won the game,” Infante said.
Dan Uggla and Jason Heyward went deep for Atlanta.
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