NEW YORK – Hot-hitting Braves second baseman Brandon Phillips left Wednesday night’s game against the Mets with a left groin strain, but manager Brian Snitker indicated the injury wasn’t serious.
Phillips was hurt while sliding at second base on a stole-base attempt in the Braves' five-run first inning during an 8-2 win at Citi Field. He played the rest of the inning, then went to the training room to be examined and was replaced in the second inning by Jace Peterson.
“He’s just day to day,” Snitker said. “Actually when he got up here (to the training room in the clubhouse) he tested out a lot better than we thought when he came off the field after the inning. Thought it was worse than what it is. So he just kind of feels like he might be able to pinch-hit tomorrow and hopefully he’s good Friday.”
The Braves have a series finale against the Mets Thursday afternoon, then travel to Milwaukee to start a three-game series Friday.
After extending his hitting streak to 11 games with a first-inning single, Phillips was thrown out trying to steal second with Freddie Freeman batting and runners on first and second for the first out of the game.
“It’s a 2-2 count and you stay out of the double play,” Snitker said, supporting Phillips’ decision to run. “He got a good jump and stole the base, just wasn’t a real good slide. Yeah, it’s an aggressive play. Freddie hits a ground ball there, we stay out of the double play and score a run. He had a good jump, stole the base and the slide wasn’t real good.”
In the bottom of the inning, Phillips came up gingerly after fielding a ground ball by leadoff hitter Michael Conforto and throwing him out, but Snitker said that wasn’t where the injury occured.
“He did it on the slide,” Snitker said. “It was kind of an awkward slide, then he went by the bag and had the bag stolen and just kind of tweaked it a little bit.”
Phillips has hit .390 (16-for-41) with two home runs during an 11-game hitting streak and was moved up from sixth to second in the batting order in the past two games. He’s batting .352 overall and has hits in 15 of the past 16 games, totaling nine RBIs and five stolen bases in that stretch.
