On Saturday afternoon, Braves infielder Chase D’Arnaud wasn’t in the lineup. Instead, D’Arnaud was in a traffic accident — one that caused him to miss his start at shortstop.
“I felt a little out of it and my girlfriend thought I was off,” D’Arnaud said. “So I felt obligated to give [Braves interim manager Brian] Snitker a call and let him know what happened.”
The accident occurred on his way to the stadium. The collision left D’Arnaud’s car with damages to his left rear bumper and left a dent near the front right side.
“My car is dinged up a little bit and the policeman came and we spoke to him for about 45 minutes,” D’Arnaud said. “He had to get an idea of what happened. When you have to listen to both sides, it is troublesome sometimes to get exactly what happened.”
After the accident, D’Arnaud was able to be active for the game. He had one at-bat and scored a run in the 7-2 victory.
Sunday, he was back in the lineup against the Marlins. This will be 26th start at the position and the first time with the Braves. As a starter, D’Arnaud is batting a career .232 with 44 hits and a .588 slugging percentage.
“Every time I got called up, I played short,” D’Arnaud said. “I played short a few times for Snitker this year when we were both in Gwinnett. It’s not going to change my mentality during the game either way. It doesn’t matter what position during the game; I am all over the place. I try to be versatile as I possibly can.”
This season, D’Arnaud is off to a fast start. He is batting .356 with a .489 slugging percentage. He says his improvement is because of an easier approach and more detailed preparation.
“Keeping it very simple is a key for me to having a very short stroke and staying up the middle,” D’Arnaud said.
In the past 14 days, D’Arnaud has also started seven games and added 10 hits. Snitker has been noticed the changes and has shown more confidence getting D’Arnaud extended playing time.
“He is a really athletic guy and we just kind of see what we got,” Snitker said. “He is going to need to help there [at shortstop]. I’ve seen Chase play and he is playing really well. So, hopefully he can do both and help us defensively and offensively.”
D’Arnaud will get a chance to add to those numbers. Against right-handed pitchers, he is batting a team-leading .429.
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