Braves second baseman Dan Uggla had never managed a hit off R.A. Dickey. He was 0-for-24 off the Mets veteran knuckleballer when he came to the plate in the third inning Wednesday afternoon. But by the time he circled the bases after a two-run homer to set the tone for the Braves’ 14-6 win, his mind was elsewhere.
He had just hit his first home run of the season, one of three two-run shots for the Braves.
“It’s a huge load off your shoulders, especially when you’re kind of known for being a power hitter,” said Uggla, who has hit 30 or more home runs each of the past five seasons.
Uggla was four months into last season before his batting average safely cleared .200, and he never lost his composure. But make him wait 12 games for his first home run in a season, and he’s miserable.
“I was having dreams about it and stuff,” said Uggla, who hit six home runs in spring training and a seventh in the exhibition against minor leaguers. “Terrible. You can put it as far back in your mind as possible, but it’s still there.”
Uggla and the Braves have spent the past two days — and the better part of a 5-1 homestand — exorcising demons. After scoring only two earned runs in 11 innings against Johan Santana and Dickey while being swept on opening weekend in New York, the Braves piled up 12 earned runs in 5 1/3 innings against those two to take this series at Turner Field.
The Braves chased Santana on Tuesday night after 1 1/3 innings, the shortest outing of his career, and rolled up eight runs on Dickey, his worst outing in three seasons with the Mets.
The last time Dickey gave up eight runs was 2008, his first season back in the big leagues with Seattle after re-inventing himself as a knuckleballer.
Nobody knew how big a challenge that sort of redemption would be better than Uggla, who was a combined 1-for-44 against Santana and Dickey entering this week’s series. His leadoff walk Tuesday night against Santana started a five-run rally in the second inning of a 9-3 win.
“Believe me, I knew that going into the offseason,” Uggla said of facing the Mets’ top two starters early. “Like ‘Oh perfect, we get to start off against the two guys that just own me. And I get to face them again nine days into it.’ You have to try to make adjustments the best you can. I put together some better at-bats. I’m trying to build off of that.”
The same can be said for the entire Braves lineup. The Braves scored 23 runs the past two games against the Mets to take over the major league lead in runs (65) ahead of the Rangers (63), as of Wednesday afternoon. They scored a season-high 14 runs on a season-high 16 hits and a season-high three home runs Wednesday, and that was without Chipper Jones or Brian McCann in the lineup.
Freddie Freeman has his second consecutive two-hit game and first home run of the year to break out of his 0-for-12 mini-slump. Juan Francisco came off the bench to hit his second home run in the past two games. Jason Heyward extended his hitting streak to eight games with a triple.
Every Braves hitter who took the plate Wednesday got a hit, including pitcher Jair Jurrjens and both pinch hitters, Jones and Matt Diaz.
“I’m trying not to get too high on today,” Uggla said. “But it was a lot of fun.”
After starting the season 0-4, the Braves have won seven of eight games and three consecutive series.
