Chipper Jones' career comes to a sour end

• Jones' Hall of Fame career comes to an end
• Jones' final game ended up with controversy
• Jones makes costly error in final game

ATLANTA -- Nineteen years and a likely Hall of Fame career and the cap to it all is put on with what?

An infield fly rule and the bedlam that followed.

It seems an absurd way to end a career.

"It stinks," said Braves catcher David Ross.

Chipper Jones' final game for the Atlanta Braves ended up with controversy and disappointment and an uproar. He was 1-for-5, his only hit a broken bat infield single in the Braves 6-3 loss to the Cardinals in an exhausting wild card vs. wild card game that was wild.

But instead of romancing Jones' career, much of the talk after the game was about the call by left field umpire Sam Holbrook on a shallow fly to the outfield in the bottom of the eighth inning. Holbrook called an infield fly on Andrelton Simmons' short fly into left field with runners on first and second. When the ball dropped the Braves thought they had the bases loaded with out.

They didn't. It was second and third two outs and the rally fizzled. The Turner Field crowd then erupted in a torrent of flying debris onto the field, which halted the game.

The scene was a distraction to Jones' finale. It should have ended with something other than a melee, right?

Jones, 40, for his part, thought he had a lot to with the sour ending. His throwing error in the fourth inning opened the door for the Cardinals to score three runs and take control of the game. The Braves committed three errors and allowed four unearned runs.

In the fourth, Jones made a nifty backhand stop of Matt Holliday's smash to third, but Jones threw the ball into right field over second baseman Dan Uggla's head when he tried to start the double play on the Cards' Carlos Beltran.

"Made a good play on the pick got a two seam grip, and it just sailed on me no other way to explain it," Jones said. "Looking back I realized later on that Beltran had to stop because of the hold on the line drive, and if I had to do it all over again, I probably would have double clutched and made sure I got a four seam grip, and give Uggla a little more time to get to second base, and give myself a better opportunity to make a truer throw.

"But we gave up six runs on six hits, and I don't know how many of them were unearned. But as far as I'm concerned the only one they should have scored was the homer."

Jones did not feel the infield fly call by Holbrook hurt the Braves as much as his throwing error.

"I'm not willing to say that that particular call cost us the ballgame. Ultimately, three errors cost us the ballgame, mine probably being the biggest. Did it cost us one out? Did it cost us one run, possibly more? Yes. But I'm not willing to sit here and say that that call cost us the ballgame."

So ends the career of a player who will likely rank just behind Hank Aaron, but on the same high shelf as Greg Maddux, Tom Glavine, John Smoltz, and Warren Spahn. Jones batted .303 lifetime as a switch hitter. He was the last link to the Braves' string of 14 consecutive appearances in the postseason.

Asked if it had sunk in that his career was over, Jones said, "No, I don't think it will for a few days, maybe a week. I don't know. As I told everybody today, I'm okay. I obviously wanted to move on. I wanted to come out here and play well. Today my heart is broken not for me, my heart is broken for my teammates and my coaching staff, and all these fans that have been so great to us this year.

"But I'll be okay. It's just one of those things. You come to the park, and I walk out of here knowing that I brought it every single day. I think when you walk out of here knowing that you brought it every day, it makes walking away on the final day a little bit easier."