Braves manager on B.J. Upton: ‘He’s not defeated’

Pressed further by the writer on what specifically might have caused Upton’s decline, Gonzalez said, “I couldn’t tell you, man. I really couldn’t tell you.”

And then he chose to focus again on a positive with the center fielder — a couple of hard-hit balls that Upton had in Sunday’s game against the Athletics.

“Two of the hardest balls that I’ve seen him hit in a long time, and he gets zero for it,” Gonzalez said. “He hit a rocket to the third baseman that almost takes his head off. And then he hits a rocket to the shortstop.”

Upton was 17-for-100 with two homers, four RBIs, 12 walks and 38 strikeouts in his past 28 games before Monday.

The Pittsburgh writer asked Gonzalez, or rather suggested, that it probably wasn’t too late for Upton to get his career back on track, since he’s still not old. Upton will be 30 on Thursday.

Gonzalez concurred and said, “We keep running him out there and you see good at-bats and you see him working and you see the good attitude. He’s not defeated. You stay in his corner and he’ll keep plugging away. He’s a fighter. He’s not going to give up that easy.”

Utility man Emilio Bonifacio started in center field in Monday’s series opener against the Pirates, the fourth time in the past 13 games that Bonifacio has started in center. Bonifacio, who came from the Cubs in a July 31 trade, has started every fourth game in center field since Aug. 5.