At least for one night, the bats of Andrelton Simmons and Jace Peterson are back.
The Braves’ middle infielders combined to go 4-for-8 in Atlanta’s 7-5 win against the Dodgers Monday night. They scored or knocked in five of the team’s seven runs.
Both entered the series against Los Angeles in deep slumps. Since June 18, Peterson was hitting .183 with one homer, nine RBIs and 28 strikeouts. Simmons was hitting .214 with no home runs, three RBIs and just five runs scored in the same span.
Simmons got nearly half those numbers Monday night, scoring two runs while going 2-for-3.
“I go back to the game that we won against the Cubs when (Simmons) had a great at-bat to draw a base-on-ball. … He got a couple hits today,” manager Fredi Gonzalez said after the game. “I think you’re starting to see the approach that we talked about the first couple months of the season. So, hopefully we’ve got him going in the right direction.”
Peterson knocked in two of his three RBIs on a two-out, bases-loaded double in the fourth that barely touched fair territory down the left-field line. After Monday’s game he was hitting .643 (9-for-14) with a league-best 22 RBIs with the bases jammed this year. The 22 bases-loaded RBIs are also the third-most single-season total in franchise history since 1974.
“Jace has been unbelievable with the bases loaded this year,” said Nick Markakis, who scored Atlanta’s other two runs with his first home run of the season. “I wish he could hit every time with the bases loaded.”
Peterson and Simmons will get another crack at cracking their slump Tuesday night against lefty Brett Anderson.
