Braves injuries in outfield mounting

Already short-handed for their important weekend series against the Florida Marlins, the Braves sustained another injury when Ryan Church was sidelined Saturday with back spasms.

The right fielder’s back tightened in Friday night’s 5-3 Braves loss in the series opener, which didn’t end until 12:52 a.m. after long rain delay in the ninth inning.

“He gutted it out last night, but he can’t even touch his toes today,” manager Bobby Cox said of Church, who had six hits in his past three games.

He joined left fielder Garret Anderson (lower back strain) and second baseman Martin Prado (headaches) on the Braves’ “day-to-day” list. Center fielder Nate McLouth (strained hamstring) is on the disabled list.

Because Anderson, Prado and Church are expected back within a few days, the Braves hoped to avoid placing any of the three on the DL, but that meant they were left with two available position players — Brian McCann and Greg Norton — on the bench Saturday, Cox said before the game.

Backup catcher David Ross was in the lineup Saturday after McCann caught Friday’s marathon and chose to take Saturday off instead of Sunday. (McCann is 7-for-22 with two homers against Ricky Nolasco, the Marlins’ scheduled starter for Sunday’s series finale).

Utility man Omar Infante made his first outfield start of the season, in left, and hit a leadoff homer in the first inning. Rookie Reid Gorecki was in center field for his second major-league start, the sixth player to start a game in center for the Braves this season.

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“Now my wrist is killing me,” said the third baseman, who had pain in his left wrist Friday after two checked swings immediately before his seventh-inning infield hit.

The veteran switch-hitter hit .194 with no extra-base hits and two RBIs in his past nine games before Saturday, including 1-for-20 with eight strikeouts in his past six games.

Lowe moves on

Five days after his Citi Field nightmare, Braves pitcher Derek Lowe will be back on the mound Sunday to start the series finale against Florida. He said he has tried not to dwell on Tuesday’s loss to the New York Mets, when he was charged with a career-high eight runs in one inning (the fourth) in a 9-4 loss.

“You treat it like a bump in the road and move on,” the veteran said, then he smiled. “It was a big bump.”

Lowe (12-8) was charged with 11 hits and eight runs in 3-2/3 innings against the Mets, after going 5-0 with a 2.91 ERA in his previous seven starts.

“It takes a few days to kind of digest what happened and clear the frustration,” he said. “There’s nothing you can do about it. There’s eight starts left; that’s your focus.”

He said a callous on his right index finger has been there for most of his career and had nothing to do with his performance against New York, though fans watching on television wondered after seeing him look at the finger several times.