WASHINGTON -- Martin Prado, hitless over the the first two games of the Braves season, felt a little like a caged animal Sunday.
Not only did it drive the Braves All-Star leadoff hitter crazy to go 0-for-9 in the Braves first two games against the Nationals, but the indoor batting cage is where Prado could be found before batting practice Sunday morning.
Alone in the cages behind the visitors’ dugout in Nationals Park, Prado was locked in, head phones on, hitting off a tee. He willed himself into a 3-for-5 day Sunday in the Braves 11-2 win, with two doubles, and an RBI.
“I was going after it,” Prado said. “During BP I was like, ‘I’ve got to go after it. So I’m not going to think about whether they’re going to make a play. I’m just going to give everything I have.’ That’s what I did today.”
Prado had been hitting balls hard for two games to no avail. He watched plays like Jayson Werth’s diving catch in right field Thursday and another twoSaturday when second baseman Danny Espinosa speared his low line drive and reliever Sean Burnett stabbed his ball back to the mound.
Prado finally got a little cooperation from the Nationals defense Sunday, starting in the first inning when Espinosa couldn’t get more than just a glove on his groundball up the middle for an infield hit.
“Yesterday he went 0-for-5 with five bullets and today probably the softest ball he hit goes for a base hit,” Braves manager Fredi Gonzalez said. “That’s how this game makes you want to jump off a cliff sometimes.”
That seemed to open the door for Prado. He came back with doubles in the fifth and seventh innings on two hard-hit balls to right field, one of which Espinosa fumbled trying to make a relay throw and allowed Tim Hudson to score.
The first three times Prado reached base, the Braves scored in the inning – with a run in the first, two in the fifth, and two in the seventh. He drove in a run in the eighth on a sacrifice fly, one of six the Braves scored in the inning when the floodgates kicked open.
The Braves had scored only five runs in the first two games when Prado failed to reach base. Sunday, they scored 11.
“If he goes, we go,” said Hudson, who won his first start of the year with more than enough support. “He’s our Jimmy Rollins. When Jimmy Rollins is playing well for the Phillies, they seem to win. That’s the same case for us.”
Not only is it a good thing on the field for the Braves, but in the clubhouse as well.
“He’s miserable,” Chipper Jones said with a smile, when asked what Prado’s like when he goes hitless for a couple of days. “He makes us all miserable.”
