Pedro Ciriaco was near the Mendoza line before Atlanta’s brief trip to Boston earlier this week. Now he’s flirting with a .300 average.
Ciriaco started at shortstop Tuesday and Wednesday while Andrelton Simmons sat after getting hit with a pitch in the hand Monday in Boston.
On Tuesday, Ciriaco went 2-for-4 with a double, a run scored and an RBI in the team’s 9-4 loss.
On Wednesday, he went 3-for-4 and hit a two-out, game-tying RBI single in the bottom of the sixth.
In his 19 games before filling in for Simmons, Ciriaco was batting .200. After Wednesday’s 5-2 win, he’s batting .279.
“(Ciriaco) was huge,” Freddie Freeman said after the game. “You saw that in spring training he was able to get the big hits in spring training, and he was able to come up here today in a big spot start and did it again for us.”
Ciriaco has been a reserve infielder bouncing between the majors and minors since 2010. He’s a career .271 hitter in the majors.
“You look at his numbers in the major leagues, it’s some solid, respectable numbers,” manager Fredi Gonzalez said. “It’s hard getting him playing time when he’s behind Simmons here and some of the other places that he’s played he’s been sitting behind some pretty good shortstops.”
Ciriaco can also play second and third base, but Jace Peterson and Juan Uribe, like Simmons, are secure in their spots on the depth chart.
“He’s a guy that could play a couple different positions in the infield,” Gonzalez said, “and you could give one of your guys a breather and run him in there and you feel pretty good about it.”
Simmons didn’t give a specific timetable for his return before the game Wednesday, but he said he feels ready to go.
