As the Braves move towards perhaps the most ill-timed promotion in sports history – it’s “Zombie Night” at Turner Field on Friday – the seeming inevitability of this season’s death march was affirmed again Thursday.
Trailing the Los Angeles Dodgers 5-1, the Braves showed uncommon spunk in the late innings. They scored three runs in the eighth. They tempted walk-off dramatics with runners on second and third, down 6-4 in the ninth. Justin Upton, their cleanup hitter and leader in home runs, RBIs and pretty much everything good, was due up next (according to the starting lineup).
Problem: Upton was forced out of the game the previous inning with a strained hamstring. B.J. “The Lesser” Upton, who had been benched from the lineup but entered as a pinch runner for his brother, now had to hit for him.
In a clutch situation. With two outs. In the ninth inning.
What could possibly go wrong?
You know, that’s one thing about zombie shows. They don’t suddenly turn into a musical.
The Lesser Upton came up and this is how things unfolded: Called strike (0-1). Foul ball (0-2). High-and-outside (Good eye! 1-2). Whiff (strike 3). Ball game.
He completed another walk of shame. So did his team. The Braves lost to the Los Angeles Dodgers 6-4. They’ve dropped four of their last five series, 12 of their last 15 games, 17 of 26 since the All-Star break, and, I don’t know, I’ve kind of lost count since that early season hallucination of 17-7.
Washington is somewhere up there in the National League East.
Pittsburgh and St. Louis and San Francisco are somewhere up there in the wild card race.
The Braves are somewhere down here, and sinking.
And they have B.J.
“It’s a cruel game sometimes,” Braves manager Fredi Gonzalez said when asked about Justin Upton being forced out of a key at-bat. “But, you know, they’re all professional hitters. You feel good that somebody will be able to bloop one in there, or hit a ball out of the ballpark, or split a gap.”
I like Gonzalez. But he’s doing what any manager would do when he would rather throw B.J. under the bus. He lies.
Gonzalez might not be flawless as a manager, but he has tried everything with this guy. In less than two full seasons, The Lesser Upton has batted first, second, fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh, eighth and ninth in the order. (Don’t say it. Don’t you dare say, “Try him third!”)
Upton has played 239 games with the Braves. He has had 929 plate appearances. How much do we have to see?
He's hitting .198. He has struck out 301 times as a Brave and we're not even through year two. Year two. He has fanned a team-high 150 times this season, which puts him on a pace for 201. That would obliterate Dan Uggla's single-season record of 168 strikeouts.
Say this for Upton: It’s not easy to reduce Dan Uggla to a statistical afterthought.
The Braves are going nowhere with this guy.
Their postseason chances are quickly evaporating. Things haven’t felt right with this team for a while. Upton’s not the only problem on this team but he is the biggest. Gonzalez needs to do what any manager must do when a team’s playoff hopes are on the line, and that’s play the best guys and bench the worst.
Forget about salary. Forget about stature. Forget about perceived skills.
Prayer works sometimes but I’m assuming Gonzalez has tried that already.
The Lesser Upton has to go to the bench and stay there. If Justin Upton misses a game or two with his injury, that might make things difficult. But Gonzalez probably had his best lineup out there Thursday with B.J. on the bench and the top of the batting order reading: Jason Heyward, Emilio Bonifacio (center field), Freddie Freeman, Justin Upton.
The Lesser Upton has been playing games for one reason: The Braves are only two years into his $75.25 million contract. Gonzalez also had to believe/hope that some of those numbers on his Tampa Bay resume might be replicated here. He might not have had the most confidence in the player – or Uggla before his merciful release – for a while. But he understood both potentially brought pop to the offense, and the Braves needed that.
So Gonzalez played them. And he waited. And waited.
At some point, the team pulled the chute on Uggla. Only finances are preventing them from doing the same with Upton but can you see them bringing him back next season?
Whatever the Braves thought they were getting with B.J. Upton now looks like pure fantasy.
By benching him, might they upset his brother and/or leave the Braves with a miserable player in the clubhouse? Maybe. But is this a happy and smooth-running operation now?
