JUPITER, Fla. — Braves third baseman Adonis Garcia played one inning Saturday before he left the game with tightness in his left hamstring.
Batting in the three-hole, Garcia grounded out to shortstop for the last out in the first and took his position for the bottom of the inning. He did not go out for the bottom of the second.
“He was running pretty hard on that ground ball,” Braves manager Brian Snitker said.
Snitker said Garcia, hitting .348 entering the exhibition, probably would have stayed in if this had been a regular-season game.
“It’s a ‘better to be safe than sorry’ type thing with your leg,” Snitker said. “I want them to be smart like that because we have time to back off the throttle a little bit. It’s nothing big.”
The Braves and Cardinals finished in a 2-2, 10-inning tie when Akeel Morris was unable to protect the Braves’ 2-1 lead in the ninth.
Emilio Bonifacio, trying to make the Braves’ roster, scored the game’s first run when he singled, stole second and third and scored on a single by Tyler Flowers. Former Independent League slugger Balbino Fuenmayor homered in the sixth for the Braves’ other run. The Braves were held to four hits and struck out 12 times against six Cardinals pitchers.
