The Braves have had the National League’s best offense for the first month of the season, but that didn’t stop manager Brian Snitker from shaking things up Sunday when he dropped Ender Inciarte from leadoff to ninth in the batting order.
Hot-hitting Ozzie Albies was moved up to bat leadoff and phenom Ronald Acuna, in his fifth major league game, was bumped from fifth or sixth in the order to the second spot ahead of slugger Freddie Freeman.
Albies promptly homered on the first pitch of the game, his ninth home run and majors-leading 21st extra-base hit, and Acuna doubled on the third pitch.
“Mainly it’s just, I want to try to get Ender going,” Snitker explained after posting the lineup against the Phillies. “I think he’s beating himself up, it’s starting to pile up on him. Sometimes I think you’ve got to change the scenery a little bit for a guy. I had a long talk with him. What it does, too, it gives us two leadoff guys. And kind of gets him out of the fray.”
The timing seemed a little odd, since Inciarte has fared better lately, batting .346 (18-for-52) with no extra-base hits, a .370 OBP and .346 slugging percentage in his past 11 games. He hit .183 (11-for-60) with a .242 OBP and .217 slugging in his first 14 games. But Inciarte and Snitker agreed the speedy center fielder and major league stolen-base leader still wasn’t where he could be offensively.
“I toyed with this a couple of weeks ago and stayed with (the same lineup) and I just feel like it might be time. It could be good for him,” said Snitker, who wasn’t concerned about potentially disrupting a productive offense. “It’s still the same guys hitting. I mean, I don’t know that it should matter that much. Maybe it will, we’ll see.”
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