Gordon Beckham began his third stint on the Braves roster Thursday night. It remains to be seen how his 29-year-old left leg hold out this time.
Beckham, activated from the disabled list before the Braves-Cubs game at Wrigley Field, has twice been sidelined by left hamstring problems, both times just as he was providing the team solid support at the plate. Interim manager Brian Snitker had him in his lineup at shortstop Thursday night.
“Get him back in and get him acclimated,” Snitker said. “He got rained out in his last rehab start so I just wanted to get him back our there. Our guys have played a lot of ball the last two or three weeks with no days off and extra innings.”
Emilio Bonifacio was designated for assignment to open a place on the 25-man roster. In 15 games, including seven starts Bonifacio, hit .129, including 11 strikeouts in 31 at-bats. He was hitless in his last 12 at-bats before being DFA’ed.
Beckham, who has started at second base, third base and shortstop, was sidelined on June 2 just as he put together his most productive stretch of offense. In the eight games before he went down, Beckham recorded seven RBIs, his first home run of the season, a triple and even a stolen base.
When he was injured in April, the timing was similarly bad. He hit .375 in the last five games before his first DL stint. Both times, it was his left hamstring..
“I felt really good even on the day I did it (a second time),” Beckham said. “I think the reason I hurt when did was the day before, I drilled my quad into (Giants first baseman Brandon Belt’s) knee and that caused me not to be able to pull up as much. The next day, I tried to run something out and it still wasn’t strong so when I added that little more tension, it just went again.
“I’d never had that issue, so to have two in sort of a month and a half is sort of strange.”
About the Author
