Joey Terdoslavich got his first hit in his second major league at-bat Friday night, and the Braves rookie got to share the moment with the person he most wanted to have there. His father, Joe.
“It was definitely a cool experience, especially with my dad here,” said Terdoslavich, who hit a sharp single to right field off Phillies closer Jonathan Papelbon with two out in the ninth inning. “He was sitting behind the dugout. I looked over at the dugout, looked above it and saw him. He was really excited.
“To get the hit was special, but to look up and see how excited he was, was just as special, if not more.
Terdoslavich, 24, spent countless hours of his youth in Florida working with his father, from Little League through high school and right through last winter, when they focused on eliminating a bat waggle he picked up the previous season.
The work paid off when Terdoslavich impressed Braves officials in his second big-league spring training. On Thursday, he was called to the majors after hitting .318 with 24 doubles and 18 homers in 85 games at Triple-A Gwinnett.
“I was walking in (to the dugout after the last out), grabbed my stuff and came back up to say hi to him,” Terdoslavich said, “and he couldn’t even say anything. It was pretty cool. He was just, like, ‘Awesome. Awesome.’ That’s all he kept saying.”
DL updates: Brandon Beachy and Evan Gattis, both on the disabled list, accompanied the Braves to Philadelphia, and Saturday both continued their progress toward returning, at times still to be determined.
Beachy threw a 50-pitch bullpen session, the most he’s thrown from the mound since shutting down his rehab assignment three weeks ago because of inflammation in his surgically repaired elbow.
“He threw well,” manager Fredi Gonzalez said. “We’ll see how he comes out tomorrow.”
Gattis, recovering from a strained oblique, ran and threw in the outfield, then hit balls off a tee for the third time in the indoor batting cages.
Gonzalez said Gattis might be told to rest Sunday before he increases his activities when the Braves travel to Miami on Monday. The manager said it was unlikely Gattis would be ready to take live batting practice before the end of that series.
Emergency catcher: After Gerald Laird was ejected from Friday's 5-4 loss in the third inning for arguing with home-plate umpire Angel Hernandez, it left the Braves with only one active catcher, Brian McCann.
Gonzalez, who also was ejected by Hernandez after coming to Laird’s defense, said the emergency catcher would’ve been infielder Paul Janish or Terdoslavich, although the manager didn’t know that until talking to each of them at the indoor batting cage after he was tossed from the game.
“Janish said he did it in Cincinnati, was the official third catcher, and he even caught (bullpen sessions),” Gonzalez said. “Terdo said he caught in high school and even caught a little in college, in the bullpen. And (Tyler) Pastornicky volunteered.”
