The Braves are mad and frustrated heading to the 162nd game.
Their season is on the brink after a potentially historic collapse.
“It’s like living out a bad dream,” Jones said.
Lowe had another miserable outing, surrendering five runs in four-plus innings, and the Braves took another step toward giving away a playoff berth that seemed certain just a few weeks ago with an ugly 7-1 loss to the Philadelphia Phillies on Tuesday night.
Chase Utley, Hunter Pence and Jimmy Rollins homered to back a three-hit outing by Roy Oswalt (9-10), who tuned up for the playoffs with a strong performance in a largely disappointing season.
“We’ve got one game to play in the month of September, then October comes around and it’s a new month,” Braves manager Fredi Gonzalez said. “There’s not a person in that locker room who I wouldn’t want to be on my team to play that game.”
“I would hope so,” Jones said, trying to make light of the grim situation. “We’re pretty much all he has anyway.”
Certainly, that team is really, really struggling.
The Braves lost their fourth in a row and eighth in 11 games, sending them to the final day of the regular season tied for the NL wild-card lead after St. Louis beat Houston.
Atlanta, which had an 8½-game lead just three weeks ago, will send its ace to the mound tonight. Sixteen-game winner Tim Hudson will try to wrap up the wild card or at least force a one-game playoff against Cardinals, which would be Thursday night in St. Louis.
“It is what it is,” Gonzalez said. “We’ve played 161 games and it comes down to one. We’ve done it to ourselves. No excuses there. We’ve got to go get it tomorrow.”
Lowe (9-17) has lost all five of his September starts and drawing the ire of Atlanta fans.
They cheered lustily when Gonzalez popped out of the dugout to make a pitching change after Lowe gave up a leadoff single in the fifth, then heckled the high-priced right-hander as he trudged to the dugout – and straight to the showers without so much as a pause.
“When you’re 9-17 with a (5.05) ERA, come on, there’s really nothing you can say to sugarcoat it,” Lowe said. “I’m man enough to say I’ve had a terrible year. But we’ve still got a chance. Our best pitcher is going tomorrow. This isn’t about me. This is about this organization and how much hard work these guys have put in this season.”
The top three hitters in the Phillies’ lineup – Rollins, Utley and Pence – combined to go 6 for 12 with three homers, five RBI and four runs scored. Rollins had three hits and Pence drove in three runs.
