A contrite Chris Johnson apologized to his teammates after Friday’s game for throwing a tantrum in the tunnel leading to the Braves clubhouse after striking out in his first at-bat of the game – a move that prompted Braves manager Fredi Gonzalez to pull him from the game in the second inning.
Johnson had struck out against Rockies right-hander Jordan Lyles to lead off the second inning. Ramiro Pena replaced him at third base in the top of the third inning.
“I let my emotions get the best of me tonight in the tunnel and blew up a little bit, and it’s dangerous to do it,” said Johnson, who was eventually followed up into the tunnel by a group of Braves teammates and coaches. “There were some people down there that weren’t too happy about it…Up top (in the tunnel). That’s how somebody could get hurt, and I think that was the point of it, is to kind of teach me a lesson, that that could hurt somebody or myself. And I agree with them 100 percent. I let me emotions get the best of me tonight.”
Johnson has shown a pattern of losing control of his emotions since coming to the Braves in a trade from Arizona prior to last season. He was benched for two games in April because of a tantrum he threw after his second four-strikeout game in a three-day span.
He also got into a confrontation with first base coach Terry Pendleton in the dugout after a game last season after he threw his helmet in anger and it inadvertently hit Pendleton on the ricochet.
But this was the first time Johnson had ever been pulled in the middle of a game.
“I apologized to the team about that after the game and to Pena for having to pick me up,” Johnson said. “I’m sorry to the fans, people who came out to watch me play today. That’s just one of my demons. That’s one of those things I’ve got to try to get through and get better at….
“It’s like getting tossed out of a game in the first inning. Pena has to go in and get ambushed and the team doesn’t know what’s going on and I let my emotions get the best of me. First and foremost I wanted to talk to the team and let them know that I was deeply sorry for that and that I was going to work my butt off to fix that part of my game.”
Johnson said he’s prepared to face whatever additional discipline comes his way, if any. He acknowledged that he could have been injured, or worse, injured one of his teammates.
“I play with a lot of passion every single pitch, every single at-bat,” Johnson said. “I hold with pretty high regard and then when things don’t go well, that’s kind of my downfall. That’s one of the biggest parts of my game that I’ve got to try to work on. And yeah hurting myself would be bad. One of the worst things I could probably ever do would be hurt a teammate or something like that and both of those would really hurt the ball club. So I think that was Skip’s reasoning for taking me out of the game.”
Johnson said he understood and respected Gonzalez’s decision to take him out of the game.
“I agree 100 percent with his decision,” Johnson said. “It was the right thing to do. Taking me out of the game and not letting me play is probably the worst thing to do to me because all I want to do is get out there and play. And whatever the punishment may be I’ll take it like a man and try to get better at that.”
His strikeout Friday was Johnson’s ninth during a 4-for-26 stretch over the past seven games.
Johnson came just 10 points shy of the National League batting title last year, finishing the season with a career-best .321 batting average in his first season with the Braves. Johnson has not been as consistent at the plate so far this season, hitting .265 through 46 games.
The Braves just signed Johnson to a three-year $23.5 million extension three weeks ago.
Johnson said he realized this was a recurring pattern he needed to address.
“This has to be it for me,” he said. “I think that it’ll get to a point where (if) it happens again, people aren’t going to believe that I’m truly sorry for doing it. It just looks selfish I think. It was one at-bat. I should be able to just wipe it off. So yeah hopefully this is it.”
