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The game was delayed for 19 minutes after the disputed call while the grounds crew collected debris thrown by the crowd at Turner Field. More Photos »
ATLANTA — St. Louis vs. Atlanta on Friday carried a double dose of expectation.
It was baseball's first wild-card game, the inauguration of Commissioner Bud Selig's front-loaded expansion to the playoffs.
It was potentially Chipper Jones's last game in his wire-to-wire career with the Braves spanning 19 remarkable seasons.
But the lasting memories of a 6-3 Cardinals victory were provided by Jones's pivotal fielding error, compounded by a forgettable night at the plate, and a disputed infield-fly-rule decision by the umpiring crew that ignited an outbreak of fan misbehavior.
While the slugger Albert Pujols (relocated) and Manager Tony La Russa (retired) no longer cast long shadows, the defending World Series champions will begin a best-of-five-game set Sunday with the Washington Nationals at home in a National League division series.
The Braves are done for the season — and their longtime leader is done for good.
"I'll walk out of here knowing I brought it every day," Jones said. "It makes walking away on the final day a little bit easier."
At the same time, Jones acknowledged that his performance on Friday, hardly suited to a surefire Hall of Famer, left a sour taste that might take a while to rinse out.
The Braves led by 2-0 in the fourth inning when Jones, whose glove work over the years has enhanced his credentials for Cooperstown, collected a one-hopper on what seemed an inevitable around-the-horn double play. But his errant throw to second base veered into right field, and the Cardinals capitalized with three runs.
"Ultimately, I feel like I'm the one to blame," Jones said. "It was a tailor-made double-play ball. It seemed like that play right there turned everything around."
The wayward toss established an unwanted template for Atlanta. Two subsequent misfires by infielders Dan Uggla and Andrelton Simmons enabled St. Louis to accumulate its six runs after only four hits.
A rally-crushing groundout by Jones to close the seventh inning appeared to squeeze the life out of the Braves, but they stirred in the eighth, placing two runners on with one out.
Simmons sent a lazy pop-up into short left field that plunked down behind shortstop Pete Kozma. The infield fly rule was signaled after some hesitation by the left-field umpire, Sam Holbrook.
Gonzalez ranted at the umps that the ball had sailed beyond the customary zone for which the rule is applied. The Braves filed a protest, which was quickly denied. Video reviews cannot be used on infield fly rule matters.
"My problem with the call is the shortstop went out a long, long, long way to try to catch the ball," Gonzalez said.
Jones, observing from the dugout, could not remember a similar call in a career spent mostly as a third baseman.
Umpires for the playoffs are chosen on merit, but they are not accustomed to patrolling the outfield. Regular-season crews consist of four men, each stationed in the infield.
Holbrook said that his call was prompted by Kozma's showing "ordinary effort" and being in position to catch the ball. Holbrook said his opinion was unchanged after he watched a replay following the game.
"Absolutely not," he said.
Holbrook's decision was supported by Joe Torre, baseball's executive vice president for baseball operations, who indicated that the play looked like an infield fly.
Braves General Manager Frank Wren submitted the protest, and Torre turned down it down, "based on the fact that it was an umpire's judgment call."
"You can't uphold a protest based on that," Torre said.
The normally even-tempered Atlanta crowd pelted the field with liquid containers after the ruling, causing a 19-minute delay. Jones ducked under an awning — "my mama didn't raise no fool," he said — while other players took shelter in dugouts or congregated in shallow center field, beyond the reach of projectile-hurling spectators.
"I was a little disappointed with the reaction of the fans," Gonzalez said. "For me, it was uncalled-for. You can get people injured out there. It's scary."
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