Braves center fielder Ender Inciarte wanted to hit a home run for his mother if he had the chance Sunday against the Marlins, but he didn’t want to tell her ahead of time.
“No, I didn’t want to jinx it, so I didn’t want to say anything,” he said, smiling. “But I was thinking about it. It’s still Mother’s Day, so I can give her this gift.”
Gift delivered: Inciarte hit a two-run homer in the sixth inning of the Braves’ 4-3 win on Mother’s Day at Marlins Park, where they got their third win in the four-game series and 10th in their past 11 road games.
His mom watches the games at her home in Venezuela.
“She’s always watching the games, paying attention,” Inciarte said, “and for me to tell her mom, this is for you – my grandmother is with her right now, they’re both watching the game.”
The Braves got a run in the first inning when Freddie Freeman hit a two-out single and scored on Nick Markakis’ single. Then they opened up a 3-0 lead in the sixth when Ronald Acuna hit a leadoff double and Inciarte hit a two-out homer, his third of the season and second in as many days.
He has four homers in his past 11 games at Marlins Park.
It was the fourth multi-hit game in the past five days for Inciarte, who leads the majors with 17 stolen bases and has hit well for four weeks since his slow start at the plate.
Inciarte has hit .324 with eight extra-base hits (three homers), 12 stolen bases and an .843 OPS in his past 24 games. after hitting .183 with two extra-base hits, five steals and a .459 OPS in his first 14 games.
He had a streak of 10 consecutive stolen bases without getting caught snapped Sunday when he was thrown out trying to steal third base in the ninth inning, an ill-advised attempt but not one that manager Brian Snitker is going to get too upset about given how much Inciarte’s aggressiveness has helped the team in most cases.
Inciarte batted fifth in the order for the first time Sunday, after being dropped from leadoff to ninth for seven games recently and then moving up slowly to the seventh spot for two games and the sixth spot for three.
“I kind of like where he’s at (near the middle of the order) because it allows him to, when he’s getting all those hits, to knock runs in,” Snitker said. “And it allows him to run, albeit sometimes you wish he wouldn’t. (Snitker laughs). No, but kind of when he’s in the middle of the lineup it allows him to use all his tools. He’s got a whole lot of them – stealing bags, big hits.
“A guy gets 200 hits, then you put somebody on in front of them and he’s got a chance of knocking some runs in and helping keep innings alive. So I kind of like him right there.”
