After being benched for four of the previous five games in order to work on flaws in his swing, B.J. Upton was back in the Braves lineup Saturday night against Washington.
The slumping center fielder entered with a .145 average and .476 on-base-plus-slugging percentage (OPS), the lowest in each category among 170 major league hitters with enough plate appearances to qualify. He’s two months into the first season of a five-year, $75.25 million contract, and the situation has not been an easy one for the Braves.
“Sometimes not playing them, sometimes the rest is good,” manager Fredi Gonzalez said. “But sometimes, too much rest is harmful. So, get him in there.”
Upton struck out in the ninth inning of Friday’s 3-2 loss to Washington, making him 0-for-4 with three strikeouts in his only plate appearances over five days. The others came against Toronto on Wednesday in his only start during the five-game span.
In his past 18 games, Upton was 7-for-55 (.127) with one extra-base hit, three RBIs, six walks and 27 strikeouts.
“You just don’t know, especially when a guy is struggling,” Gonzalez said. “I think when a guy is playing well and he’s played 15 in a row, you give him a breather and it’s fine. But a guy that you want to help and he’s struggling a little bit, you just don’t know the amount of time (that’s right) to get him straight. If it’s one day, two days, 77 hours … I don’t know.
“And it comes to the point where he’s got 11 at-bats in seven days, or nine days or whatever, and that can’t be very good either. So get him in there. It’s good.”
Before Saturday’s game, the Braves led the National League with 493 strikeouts, on pace for 1,479 in a full season. The major league record is 1,529 strikeouts by the 2010 Arizona Diamondbacks, the only team to ever strike out as many as 1,400 times in a season.
The Braves had three of the top four individual strikeout totals in the NL before Saturday: Dan Uggla led the league with 68 strikeouts 170 at-bats, and the Upton brothers ranked third and fourth, B.J. with 63 strikeouts in 159 at-bats and Justin with 62 strikeouts in 189 at-bats.
The Uptons and Uggla struck out a combined 96 times in 250 at-bats in May, with 35 walks and nine homers. They hit a combined .188, including .211 (.327 OBP) for Justin Upton; .195 (.297 OBP) for Uggla, who had six homers; and .147 (.237 OBP) for B.J.
