While the rest of Turner Field was still abuzz about the 457 feet worth of home run Justin Upton cranked into the left-field seats Tuesday night, Upton was breaking out of a celebratory hug with Freddie Freeman after he crossed home plate.
He said something to make Freeman look back at him and smile. Wonder what?
“He actually said, ‘I finally hit a ball,’” Freeman said. “We had a good laugh. He works so hard. Obviously we’re all going to have bad games here and there. It was so nice to have that success early in the game to get his confidence back.”
The first solid contact Upton made in three days — connecting with a change-up from Cardinals left-hander Tyler Lyons — was the ninth longest home run in the major leagues this season, according to ESPN home run tracker. Such is life for Upton, the streakiest of hitters in more ways than one. It can be all or nothing for him in any particular plate appearance or during any particular stretch of time.
In his second season with the Braves, Upton’s tendency has been to be all-world in April and merely mortal from then on. He hit .298 with majors-leading 12 home runs in April last year and only .256 with 15 home runs the rest of the season. For his career, Upton is a .278 hitter in April and .268 the rest of the season. He’s hit 25.7 percent of his career 144 homers in April.
So after he hit .326 with eight home runs this April, even his manager Fredi Gonzalez was joking with him that “it’s still April” after the calendar flipped to May.
“At the end of the day you’ve got to try to be productive every month that you step on the field,” Upton said. “It doesn’t always happen that way. It’s May now. I’ll continue to try to help the team. … I know what I can bring to the team. I’ve just got to go out and do it.”
Upton doubled in his last at-bat against the Marlins in Miami on May 1, but started this homestand by going 1-for-15 over three games with 11 strikeouts. Five of the strikeouts came on called third strikes.
Upton struck out looking to end the game Friday night with the tying run at second base in a 2-1 loss to the Giants.
He struck out looking to end the game Monday night with the tying run at second base in a 4-3 loss, which came after Cardinals closer Trevor Rosenthal pitched around Jason Heyward to bring up Upton. That was one of four strikeouts in the game for Upton.
Other than his single to right field Saturday night against the Giants, the only contact he made in a three-game stretch was a pop-up in foul ground Sunday and a fly out in his first at-bat Tuesday before he homered off Lyons. Hence the comment to Freeman.
“Sometimes you’ve got to be able to laugh at yourself,” Upton said. “It wasn’t so funny on Monday night. It can get a bit frustrating. But you can finally take a deep breath and laugh at yourself. Go out and have fun playing the game again.”
Upton typically tries to work himself through the slumps. And last season trying to work himself back into the rhythm he had in April, he took it too far at times, if you ask Braves hitting coach Greg Walker. If anything, Walker thinks Upton sometimes pushes himself too hard or overthinks at the plate. The two made a deal this season to cut back on Upton’s work in the batting cage to eliminate taking “flips” from coaches before games. Upton hits some off the tee until he feels good, then takes batting practice.
Upton regained his focus Tuesday after spending a few chance minutes in the video room that afternoon with a guy who knows his swing as well as anybody — his brother B.J.
B.J. said he typically won’t say much to Justin unless he’s first asked, and Justin does the same for him. But Tuesday they both wound up in the video room at the same time and started talking.
“I just kind of threw a couple things at him and he was like, ‘You know what? You’re right,’ and Walk agreed,” B.J. Upton said. “… Something very small mechanically when he was going good, he was doing and the last week or so he hadn’t been doing, and he made the correction and hopefully he’s back for a while.”
Justin said B.J. can notice when something is slightly off, such as his posture at the plate.
“When you start getting tired, and you’re in a little bit of a rut, things creep up on you and your mechanics can break down a little bit,” Justin Upton said. “Sometimes you need a reminder of what you do well and stick to it.”
What Upton does well is never far from his manager’s mind. And that’s why Gonzalez didn’t sit Upton the day after his four strikeout game.
“It’s good to run him back in there and boy, when he hits those (home runs), it makes a different sound,” Gonzalez said. “It almost looks like a golf ball, the way it goes off the bat, the trajectory. And then he got another nice hit late in the game, up the middle.”
A couple of at-bats after he homered Tuesday night, Upton singled to help the Braves manufacture the winning run in a 2-1 win behind Gavin Floyd.
On Wednesday night he doubled twice in his first two at-bats against Adam Wainwright in a 7-1 loss. In the midst of a rough stretch, the Braves have lost eight of nine entering this weekend’s series against the Cubs, Upton is trying to give the Braves something more to smile about.
