While his brother and Braves teammates Justin Upton was off to a blazing start – his first-inning homer Friday was his third in four games for Atlanta — center fielder B.J. Upton was struggling.
He was 0-for-11 with seven strikeouts in three games before Friday, when he popped out on a 3-0 pitch to end the first inning. The 3-0 count was notable only because didn’t draw a walk during spring training and had none in the first three games.
Upton and Gonzalez weren’t concerned about the slow start.
“I hit the ball pretty well all spring training,” said Upton, who hit .347 (26-for-75) in Grapefruit League play, with six doubles, two homers and 14 strikeouts. “It’s just one of those rough spots right now, man. But it’s nothing to get stressed about. That’s why you get 700 plate appearances. Just keep working, it’ll happen.”
Gonzalez said: “B.J.’s going to hit. Everybody goes through these periods at any given time during the season, it just so happens that he’s doing it the first three games, so it gets magnified. We’ll just keep running him in there, keep playing him. He’s working, feeling good. He’s close.”
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