NEW YORK – It’s not every day that you will see a backup catcher starting a day game after a night game, particularly not when the presumed primary catcher isn’t injured. Oh, and the backup catcher is 38 years old.
But A.J. Pierzysnki isn’t the typical backup catcher, and he’s hitting like neither a backup nor a 38-year-old anything.
Pierzysnki had three hits and a walk in Wednesday night’s 3-2 loss to the surging Mets, and was back in the lineup for Thursday afternoon’s series finale at Citi Field.
“I checked with him last night and I checked with him this morning,” Braves manager Fredi Gonzalez said. “He said, ‘yeah, I’m good.’”
Pierzysnki was 9-for-23 (.391) with a double, three homers, five RBIs, a .462 OBP and .826 slugging percentage in six games before Thursday, when he made his fourth start in the past six games and his seventh of the season. That’s just one fewer than rookie Christian Bethancourt, who was expected to the primary catcher when the season began.
Pierzynski was signed as a free agent to serve as backup and mentor to Bethancourt, but Braves president of baseball operations John Hart said all along that Pierzynski could end up catching a lot of games if Bethancourt struggled.
“We’re trying to win games,” Gonzalez said of Pierzysnki’s increased playing time. “He’s hitting, what, .360, .370?” (Gonzalez paused, picked up a stat sheet on his desk and scanned it.) “With three home runs in 23 at-bats.”
Bethancourt had a .133 batting average (4-for-30) before Thursday with two doubles, two RBIs, two walks and a .188 OBP and .200 slugging percentage. Gonzalez said he would continue to play Pierzynski a lot while he’s wielding a hot bat or matchups warrant it, rather than the typical backup arrangement.
“He can do it,” Gonzalez said. “And I think it’s…hell, we all want Bethancourt to be the guy. But it’ll be good for him, too. (To remind him) nothing’s given to him. You’ve got to earn it.”
Pierzynski, in his 18th season, is a two-time former All-Star with a .282 career average and 180 homers in 1,871 games. He won a Silver Slugger Award in 2012 with the White Sox, when he .278 with a career-high 27 homers and 77 RBIs in 135 games (520 plate appearances).
Braves veteran lefty Eric Stults had a good start Wednesday, allowing one run and four hits with no walks in six innings, and afterward commended Pierzysnki.
“A.J. did a great job, he had a good feel back there,” Stults said. “I didn’t have to shake him (off) much, and that makes it easy as a pitcher, when you feel like your catcher has a good plan. You just go with it….
“He’s hitting, and he’s calling a good game. He’s been around long enough, he knows what he’s doing. He’s caught some no-hitters, so he knows how to call a baseball game. Like I said, it’s fun when you can get in a groove and whatever (sign) he puts down, you feel like it’s the right pitch, and you just try to execute it.”
Gonzalez said it wasn’t a difficult decision to play Pierzynski more right now.
“He’s swinging it,” he said. “And you’ve got a guy who’s done well, who does a good job and he can do it. We talked about it before, this guy until last year (played 135) games. He’s not your normal, prototypical catcher-backup guy that’ll only catch 20, 30 games a year.”
Pierzysnki was 9-for-20 (.450) with a .950 slugging percentage against right-handers before Thursday, when he faced 41-year-old Mets righty Bartolo Colon. Pierzysnki was 12-for-50 with two homers against Colon before Thursday, and Braves left fielder Jonny Gomes came in 8-for-21 with three homers against him.
