FORT MYERS, Fla. – Baseball people will tell you spring-training results and statistics are all but meaningless, but teams still want to score more than a couple of runs now and then. It reinforces the belief it can be done.
And so, after scoring two runs or fewer in eight of their previous 11 games, the Braves were understandably pleased to rack up 13 hits in an 11-3 rout against the Red Sox on Tuesday at Fenway South.
Andrelton Simmons and rookie catcher Christian Bethancourt each went 3-for-4 and drove in five runs between them, and seven other Braves had a hit apiece including Eric Young Jr.’s three-run triple.
“We hit up and down the lineup,” Braves manager Fredi Gonzalez said. “That’s a good sign. We haven’t done that in a while, so maybe this is the start of getting the offense going a little bit…. Bethancourt, Young, Simmons – he missed a couple of weeks, but he’s played in five games and it looks like he hasn’t missed a beat swinging the bat. All good.”
The Braves roughed up Red Sox starter Clay Buchholz for five hits and four runs (two earned) in four innings, including consecutive two-out RBI hits by Bethancourt (double) and Simmons in the first inning.
Simmons missed two weeks with a strained oblique. He hasn’t needed time to shake off any cobwebs: He’s played five games and gone 9-for-16 with a home run and six RBIs.
“Not everything I want, but I can’t complain,” he said of his swing. “I’m seeing the ball well. I got a couple of pitches to hit and I didn’t miss them.”
Bethancourt went 3-for-4 with two doubles and two RBIs against the Red Sox, making him 9-for-25 (.360) with a team-high six doubles in nine games.
“No doubt I’m feeling good right now swinging the bat,” said Bethancourt, who doubled to the left-field wall in the first inning and doubled to the warning track in straightaway center in the fourth.
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