Adonis Garcia hit .421 with two homers in his past five games before Wednesday, but it was the Braves third baseman’s defense that had people talking.
Garcia had only one error in 16 games at third base since returning from Triple-A Gwinnett, after making seven errors in 21 games at the position before he was sent down at the end of April.
He made his second error since returning Wednesday night on a bounced throw to first base in the sixth inning that allowed the runner to reach base, after Garcia made a nice play just to stop the sharply hit infield single. Oh, yeah, and he also had three more hits in the Braves’ 13-inning, 9-8 win.
The defensive improvement in-season has been dramatic for Garcia. And the really odd thing about that is, he was sent down to Triple-A to work exclusively in left field, since the Braves thought his defense was a liability at third base and he could do less damage with his glove in the outfield.
He didn’t play any third base at Gwinnett. But when he was recalled to the majors, the need was at third base rather than left field, so to third base he returned. And voila, he has played like a new man there, going from arguably the worst defensive infielder in baseball in April to play a strong defensive third base since he returned.
“Pretty amazing that he went down and didn’t play third base, came back and he’s pretty much a whole different third baseman,” Braves first baseman Freddie Freeman said. “Nice for us. That’s what he was here to start the year as, a third baseman, and obviously it didn’t go his way. But sometimes a little change of scenery – go down there, obviously he didn’t play (third base at Triple-A), but then came back up and got his chance again, and he’s making the most of it.”
Instead of Freeman wondering if he’s going to have to scoop a one-hopper, reach wide or high overhead to try to snag an off-target throw from Garcia like he did frequently in April, “He’s throwing them all to me. Before he’d throw a couple away, but now every single one is coming right at my chest.
“He throws hard. He’s been playing well. Starting to hit, too.”
Indeed, after Wednesday Garcia is 11-for-26 (.423) in his past six games with a double, two homers, four RBIs, two walks, two strikeouts, with four multi-hit games.
“Starting to swing the bat a little bit, like we had hoped when we had him up here (first time),” Braves interim manager Brian Snitker said prior to Wednesday’s comeback win. “He did a good job last year when he got called up. Hopefully we can get him in the right position and take advantage of him swinging the bat pretty good.”
