Jace Peterson had his first two-hit game of the season Monday, on a night when the Braves rookie second baseman also made several shaky throws and was initially charged with two errors.
One of the errors was changed later from a Peterson throwing error to a missed-catch error on Albert Callaspo at third base on Dan Uggla’s eighth-inning triple, which allowed the former Brave to score.
“Things like that happen,” Peterson said. “Fortunately we still got the win and nothing happened (because of the throws).”
Peterson was charged with a throwing error after pulling Chris Johnson off of first base on Tyler Moore’s grounder to start the ninth inning. And with one out in the ninth, only the fact that a scorekeeper can’t assume a double play prevented Peterson from being charged with another throwing error on another errant throw to first base on the back end of a would-be game-ending double play.
Tempers flared earlier when the Braves’ Andrelton Simmons slide hard and late at third base on a fourth-inning play that forced Yunel Escobar from the game with a cut on his glove hand. And both benches were warned after Nationals reliever Rafael Martin hit Simmons with a pitch in the seventh inning. Ian Desmond’s takeout slide in the eighth inning helped prevent a double-play when it altered Peterson’s throw, and the rookie conceded that was on his mind on the potential double play in the ninth.
“The first one, Ian had hit me and I kind of let it go,” Peterson said. “And I think the second one, I might have been thinking about that (Simmons play) a little bit, trying to be too quick and get out of the way. Fortunately it didn’t come back to bite us…. “It’s ne of those things I keep working on. I’m going to go out every day and play my hardest, do the best I can. I’m not going to be perfect by any means, but I’m going to work hard to try to be.”
As for The Slide that injured Escobar, Peterson said, “I don’t think anything was wrong with the Simmons slide at all. I think he was trying to get to third. He slid a little late. I don’t think he had any intention of hurting anybody at all. He’s not that type of guy.”
“After that, Simmons got hit and they came at me at second. If that’s the way they want to play, that’s they way they want to play. I’m going to come in and work and play hard every day.”
