WASHINGTON — Jason Heyward was out of the Braves’ lineup again Wednesday, the first time this season he has sat for consecutive games for reasons not related to his health.
The way Braves manager Fredi Gonzalez put it Wednesday, he was going with the hot hand.
Call-up Jose Constanza has given the Braves a spark, going 8-for-20 (.400) with a double and two RBIs in his first five major league starts.
Gonzalez started Eric Hinske in left field because he was hitting .433 (13-for-30) with seven extra-base hits against Chien-Ming Wang.
“Just because he hasn’t been in the lineup two days in a row has got nothing to do with giving up on him or anything like that, absolutely not,” Gonzalez said. “It was just a matter of Constanza swinging it and Hinske having decent numbers against Wang.”
Heyward has hit only .233 (34-for-146) since coming off the disabled list in mid-June. The Braves are believed to have at least considered sending him to the minors to work on his swing.
Going forward, Gonzalez seems to be showing more of a willingness to play the matchups and the hot hand, which could mean more time sitting for Heyward.
He said as much to Heyward the week before the trade deadline.
“We spoke, along with some of the other guys,” Gonzalez said. “I told them we were planning to maybe pick somebody up at the trade deadline, looking at the outfield position. We owe it to the team and the organization if that does happen to play the guys who help us these next 60 games and win. He was good with it.”
While Heyward’s not going to blame his shoulder injury for his struggles, Gonzalez wonders if it might be affecting him. And Heyward acknowledges the injury led to bad habits.
“You’re never going to be 100 percent at this point in the season, especially when you’ve had injuries throughout the season,” Heyward said. “But probably the aftermath of it — whether it’s from bad habits — is probably the biggest effect that anything’s had. I’m not in anywhere near the kind of pain I was in [earlier].”
Jones eyes Friday return
A day after seeing improvement in the field during batting practice, Chipper Jones targeted Friday in New York for his return to the lineup.
With another day of rest Wednesday and an off day Thursday, Jones was hopeful his sore quadriceps would improve so he would be comfortable playing defense.
“I was a little more active on defense,” Jones said. “Running the bases still was a little iffy, but I figured give it [two days], then Friday would be that much better. Hopefully if it is, and I feel like I’m good enough to get out there and try it.”
He has started only once in the past 22 games between arthroscopic knee surgery and then a quadriceps strain in his first game back from that.
His timing isn’t bad, either. Jones has hit .318 against the Mets with 47 homers for his career, the most home runs against any opponent. He has hit .298 with 21 homers in Shea Stadium and Citi Field combined.
Standing by Lowe
Gonzalez indicated Wednesday he plans to stick by struggling veteran Derek Lowe, who lost for the fourth time in five starts Tuesday night, allowing eight runs in four innings to the Nationals.
“Like any athlete that goes though some tough stretches — hitters go through it, pitchers go through it,” Gonzalez said. “I think we’re going through that a little bit like that. You ride it out.”
Lowe is 1-4 with a 7.52 ERA over his past five starts, with a .365 opponents’ batting average.
The Braves have two top prospects Julio Teheran and Mike Minor in Triple-A with major league experience. But they also know that Lowe has a history of doing his best pitching come playoff time, and he went 5-0 with a 1.17 ERA last September.
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