DENVER — In his first game filling in for Braves right fielder Jason Heyward, Reed Johnson went 4-for-4 with a career-high three doubles in a 4-3 win in Tuesday's doubleheader opener at Coors Field.
Heyward had an emergency appendectomy Monday night and was placed on the 15-day disabled list. Johnson and Jordan Schafer will share the right-field duties until Heyward’s expected return in a couple of weeks.
“We know Reed can play,” said left fielder Justin Upton, whose majors-leading 10th homer gave the Braves a 1-0 lead in the first inning. “It’s good to have a guy like Reed who can step in and play multiple games in a row, which he’s going to have to do. It’s good to have him swinging the bat well.”
Johnson’s four hits matched a career high and doubled his previous season total. He had been 2-for-16 before Tuesday, when he made just his third start of the season. He raised his batting average from .125 to .300 in one game.
Schafer was in right field to start the second game of the doubleheader.
Uggla homers, sits: Dan Uggla hit a two-run homer to straightaway center field in the second inning of the doubleheader opener, then struck out his next three at-bats and was out of the lineup for the nightcap.
The move had nothing to do with the three strikeouts, but instead was manager Fredi Gonzalez doing what he’d said Monday that he planned to do: Not play Uggla for both games of a doubleheader after he strained a calf muscle Saturday and was out of the lineup Sunday at Pittsburgh.
“Saturday he came out with tightness in his calf,” Gonzalez said. “I think it would be not very smart on my part to play him 18 innings first time back, in 20-degree weather. So I’ll play (Ramiro) Pena.”
