Chipper Jones Disagrees With Your Strikezone

After the Atlanta Braves dropped the tenth game of their last fourteen, awesome third baseman Chipper Jones had a few suggestions for home plate umpire Rick Reed and his crew.

The Braves struck out six times in their 5-2 loss to the Philadelphia Phillies on Tuesday night, continuing their downward spiral in the NL East. Jones didn't whiff, but hit a solo shot in the fourth and had another RBI in the fifth when he walked with the bases loaded -- the at-bat that had him steaming.

"The first pitch to me with the bases loaded was in my batter's box, inside," Jones explained after the game. "Now you tell me how I'm supposed to hit that. We have to get QuesTec here in this ballpark. We've got to. Umpires have got to be held accountable. That's Little League World Series stuff right there."

The 1999 NL MVP, who ranks sixth in the league with a .328 batting average, was not happy to see Willie Harris and Kelly Johnson pop up in front of him and Mark Teixeira ground out behind him, but it was his own at bat that had him baffled.

Chipper called it a joke, making it clear that baseball could fine him whatever they wanted to. "Somebody's got to say something. I've got more walks than strikeouts in my career -- I know what a strike looks like," he went on to call the officiating "abysmal" and "awful" and that major league baseball should be ashamed.

In the ninth inning, with Andruw Jones on first and nobody out, Yunel Escobar failed to check his third-strike swing. The most ejected manager in the history of the game emerged from the dugout, calm as can be, to make sure the first base Blue made the correct call. Bobby Cox promptly returned without an argument, but reserve catcher Brayan Pena was tossed for arguing balls and strikes.

Atlanta's right fielder Jeff Francoeur said it best: the club can't put a streak together to save their lives.

[Atlanta Journal-Constitution]