Manager Brian Snitker’s Braves had the National League’s best offense through the first month, but that didn’t stop him from shaking things up Sunday, dropping Ender Inciarte to ninth from the leadoff spot he’d occupied since early August 2016.
Hot-hitting Ozzie Albies was moved up to bat leadoff and promptly homered on the first pitch thrown by Vince Velasquez, propelling the Braves toward a 10-1, series-clinching rout of the Phillies at Citizens Bank Park.
“It’s the same for me, just trying to do what I need to do,” Albies said of his approach from the leadoff spot, where he’s now homered to start three of the eight games in which he’s been in that role.
The homer Sunday was his ninth, tying him for the National League lead, and Albies added a walk and a two-run double in the eighth inning to give him a remarkable 22 extra-base hits, a franchise record through the end of April and one off the major league mark for extra-base hits in that period.
Rookie Ronald Acuna, in just his fifth major league game, was bumped from fifth or sixth in the order up to the second spot ahead of slugger Freddie Freeman. Acuna doubled on the third pitch of the game Sunday and went 2-for-3 with two doubles, two walks and an RBI.
“Mainly it’s just, I want to try to get Ender going,” Snitker explained after posting the lineup Sunday morning. “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.
“Just trying to get him going.”
Inciarte responded by going 3-for-4 with a double, a triple and his majors-leading 13th stolen base. The two extra-base hits matched his previous season total.
“Like I said (earlier Sunday), it’s the same guys,” Snitker said of the lineup changes. “Moved them around a little bit, but it’s the same guys going up there hitting. That was good to see. It was swinging the bat, running the bases, the defensive plays, I mean it was the total package....
“Ender had a great day. He was turning the bat loose. Loved his approach today and how he attacked the ball.”
The timing of the changes Sunday initially seemed odd, as Inciarte had fared better recently after a brutal first two weeks. He hit .346 with no extra-base hits, a .370 OBP and .346 slugging percentage in his past 11 games before Sunday, after hitting just .183 with a .242 OBP and .217 slugging percentage in his first 14 games.
Still, Inciarte and Snitker agreed in making the lineup change that speedy center fielder wasn’t hitting yet at the rate that he aspired to, driving the ball and using his speed for extra-base hits the way he did Sunday.
“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 talked with Inciarte and Albies before making the changes and said before Sunday’s game that he wasn’t concerned about potentially disrupting a productive offense.
“No, it’s still the same guys hitting,” he said. “I mean, I don’t know that it should matter that much. Maybe it will, we’ll see.”
After Sunday’s results, Snitker expected to stick with the lineup at least for Tuesday’s series opener at New York against Mets lefty Steven Matz, and maybe longer.
“I don’t know how long we’ll go with that, whether we’ll roll with it,” he said “But probably will Tuesday. I kind of like it. Lot of balance. I have to get used to the pitcher hitting eighth, which I’ve never been a fan of, but in some situations it might be the way to go. So we’ll see.”
Entering Sunday the Braves led the National League in runs (141), batting average (.268), on-base percentage (.339), slugging percentage (.431) and OPS (.771). They also led the league in extra-base hits with 92 extra-base hits, only two of which came from Inciarte before Sunday.
They added a whopping nine extra-base hits Sunday to push them over 100 in 27 games.
Albies has hardly hit like a prototypical leadoff man this season, batting .293 with a .341 OBP and robust .647 slugging percentage.
Even before hitting another homer Sunday, the diminutive second baseman already had more homers than Yankees slugger Aaron Judge and ranked seventh in the majors in slugging percentage, right behind Angels star Mike Trout.
Snitker talked to Albies and basically told him not to change a thing in how he approached his at-bats despite the move to the leadoff spot, where Albies now has a .333 average (11-for-33) with three doubles and three homers.
“Ozzie’s led off,” Snitker said. “I mean, he led off all spring, he’s led off during his career. I don’t think Oz is going to try to do anything different.”
Acuna is another potential option for the leadoff spot or any other important position in the lineup.
“He can hit leadoff. He can hit fourth, he can hit third,” Snitker said of the phenom. “And that’s not a bad spot for him, I don’t think, to be in front of Freddie.”
If any pitchers were beginning to think about pitching around Acuna, they presumably won’t have that option now with Freeman behind him.
“No, they won’t,” Snitker said. “It’s really got a nice little flow to it. And the biggest thing, sometimes guys just need a change of scenery a little bit.”
Before he made the changes Snitker talked to all the affected parties.
“More than once; we’ve had a lot of conversations,” he said. “Because I’m not going to spring this on them, I’ve got too much respect for what these guys do and who they are and the professionals that they are. It’s not going to be something where they come in and look at the board and are surprised by it. I’m going to talk to them before I do it.”
He added, “Once a lineup goes around the first time it’s a lineup, you forget where the guys are at and all that kind of stuff. It’s just a big deal now, until the game gets started. And then the thing should just roll.”
