SAN FRANCISCO – The Braves’ lineup had already started to click before Matt Kemp joined it four weeks ago, because the team had several key hitters all hot at the same time, something that never happened in the first months of the season.
But with the arrival of Kemp via trade from San Diego and the veteran’s immediate insertion in the cleanup spot between Freddie Freeman and Nick Markakis, Atlanta’s offense went to a level the Braves hadn’t seen in some time.
“His presence has been huge to the lineup,” Braves hitting coach Kevin Seitzer said. “He’s a swing-and-miss guy a lot, but he’s a frickin’ scary presence. Like (Saturday) night, he runs into (a three-run homer), he’s a game-changer.”
Seitzer was referring to Kemp’s three-run homer to straightaway center field in the fourth inning against the Giants, which erased an early 1-0 deficit and was all the offense that starter Mike Foltynewicz and a couple of relievers needed in a 3-1 win at AT&T Park.
That was Kemp’s 26th homer and 10th since the All-Star break, and he added a sacrifice fly Sunday to give him a team-high 85 RBIs including 27 in 39 games since the break. (Markakis leads the Braves with 73 RBIs and Freeman has 64.)
While Kemp has hit a modest .245 with eight doubles, three homers, 16 RBIs and a .731 OPS in 26 games for the Braves, the consensus is that he’s had a major impact on the lineup that goes far beyond his own numbers.
And team statistics support that theory.
In their last 26 games before Kemp arrived, the Braves hit .252 and scored 96 runs. In their 26 games with Kemp – he’s played every game since he arrived – they’ve hit .260 and scored 125 runs. That’s a 30 percent increase in runs.
“(Kemp’s) presence makes all the difference in the world,” said Braves interim manager Brian Snitker, who has enjoyed being able to keep a stable lineup in recent weeks, with so many hitters thriving in set roles now and Kemp in the middle between Freeman and Markakis in a suddenly solid middle order. “Like I said, he legitimizes everything, I think.
“Situations aren’t going to bother (Kemp). He’s got some big hits, and you look at his numbers for the total season – I was looking at them today – he’s having a heck of a year. Really good year. So it’s just good to have him. Helps everybody around him to have him in the middle of that lineup like that….
“I was telling somebody (last week), we’ve got a lineup now. You come in and it’s not, what are we going to do? We have a lineup finally, where for the first two months there wasn’t one. We were kind of mixing and matching.”
Freeman started to heat up in mid-June and has hit .331 with 47 extra-base hits (18 homers) and a 1.100 OPS in his past 68 games. In his last 25 games before Kemp arrived, the first baseman hit .287 with five homers and a .932 OPS. In 25 games with Kemp behind him in the lineup, Freeman’s hit .315 with nine homers and a stunning 1.175 OPS.
“Obviously Ender (Inciarte) has been huge at the top of the lineup; he’s a game-changer,” Freeman said of the Braves center fielder and leadoff man, who’s hit .316 with a .369 OBP in his past 71 games and hit .359 with a .410 OBP in 42 games since the All-Star break. “It all starts with him. And Adonis (Garcia) in the 2-hole, he’s been great, too. It goes from there.
“If they get on base, that’s how you keep the line moving, and with Kemp in there he can change the game with one (swing), and Nick’s an amazing hitter. So hopefully with everybody healthy going into September we’ll put some more runs on the board.”
Kemp was at his locker stall surrounded by reporters after his three-run homer supplied all the Braves’ runs in Saturday’s win. He was answering questions about the Braves’ offense and being between hot hitters Freeman and Markakis, when Freeman returned from the shower to his locker about 10 feet over from Kemp’s and within earshot.
“Markakis has been killing just as much as Freddie has been killing,” Kemp said. “They’ve got to pitch to me, because if I get on base, Markakis is capable of driving me in. We’re trying to protect each other. (He smiled, glanced towards the approaching Freeman.) Freddie doesn’t need me, he’s a great hitter. But I am making him a little better.”
Kemp’s home run sailed out in straightaway center field on a cool, breezy night by the bay, when other hard-hit balls were barely making it to the warning track, if they even carried that far.
“That’s a big, strong man, and it was a short swing,” Snitker said. “A perfect swing, almost, and that ball just took off. Impressive where it landed, I tell you that. But watching him in batting practice, he just flicks balls and they go a long way, because he’s such a strong guy.”
Some Braves officials have said they want Kemp to lose some weight before next season; that could not only help the 31-year-old stay healthy and productive for the last three years of his contract, but might also help improve his defense and speed on the bases.
It’s easy to forget this is a guy who won Gold Glove Awards as a Dodgers center fielder in 2009 and 2011, and had three seasons with 34 or more stolen bases in a four-year span, including 40 steals with 39 homers in 2011 when he was the National League MVP runner-up.
He’s dealt with a lengthy inventory of injuries, including hip issues and shoulder and ankle injuries that required surgeries, and Kemp played just 179 games over two seasons in 2012-2013. Those health issues prevented him from doing his usual rigorous offseason workouts in some recent years and probably had a big part in his adding extra pounds.
But he was a durable player for most of his career and has been again lately, playing 150 games in 2014, 154 in 2015 and 126 so far this season, just three fewer than Freeman and Markakis, who pride themselves on playing every day.
“I’ve loved him since he’s been here,” Seitzer said of Kemp. “He works, he listens, he cares. He wants to be good. He wants to win, he wants to be great.”
And that power? Well, a hitting coach drools over working with a guy with that in his toolbox.
“He’s got some stupid, stupid pop,” Seitzer said, using present-day baseball vernacular to express that Kemp can hit baseballs a long, long way.
