Braves catcher Tyler Flowers and outfielder Jeff Francoeur wore out Dodgers left-hander Alex Wood on Tuesday and the reserves will get chances to do the same against more lefties during the rest of the home stand.
The Braves are scheduled to face three more left-handed starters over the next six days: Clayton Kershaw (Thurs. vs Dodgers), Steven Matz (Sat. vs Mets) and David Price (Tues. vs Red Sox).
Flowers was 3-for-3 with three RBIs against Wood to improve to .429 (6-for-14) with a .467 on-base percentage against left-handed starters. Francoeur went 2-for-2 with two RBIs against Wood to raise his average against lefty starters to .333 (3-for-9).
Flowers has been getting regular playing time as the backup catcher (five games started) behind lefty hitter A.J. Pierzynski (eight games). But Francoeur had just 13 plate appearances in eight of 11 games before Tuesday.
“I’m going to get more at-bats,” Francoeur said. “I went through that last year in Philly at times. In the NL East there’s just not a whole heck of a lot of lefties. You go into the NL West and it seems like everyone is a lefty. It’s nice to get some at-bats like this and then know that Thursday we’ve got another one and get in a groove.”
