After being benched for four of the past five games 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 the past 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.”
Mounting whiff total: 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 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.
In Friday’s 3-2 loss, the Braves had the bases loaded with one out in the seventh inning when Uggla and Chris Johnson struck out consecutively to end the inning with the Braves trailing by a run.
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.
Close losses to rival: The Nationals' win Friday was their third win in a row at Turner Field in May by scores of the 2-0, 3-1 and 3-2. According to the Elias Sports Bureau, that made Washington only the second team to defeat the Braves three consecutive times in Atlanta while scoring three runs or fewer in each game. The other was the 1986 Astros.
Before Saturday, the Braves and Nationals had split their 26 games since the beginning of the 2012 season.
Nats banged up, too: Like the Braves, the Nationals have dealt with multiple injuries in recent weeks. They added another Friday when starting pitcher Stephen Strasburg left after two innings with a strained oblique muscle. The Nationals hope he'll avoid a stint on the disabled list and possibly even make his next start.
Nationals outfielder Bryce Harper was placed on the disabled list Saturday with bursitis in his knee. Outfielder Jayson Werth has a strained hamstring that was expected to keep him out through the weekend series, and second baseman Danny Espinosa was playing with a broken hand.
Mac near milestone: Brian McCann entered Saturday three hits shy of 1,000. The Braves veteran wasn't in the lineup after catching the past three games. Since the beginning of 2006, his first full season, McCann led major league catchers in homers (157), extra-base hits (367), RBIs (595), two-out RBIs (249) and game-winning RBIs (74).
Etc.: The Braves continued to talk to at least five teams who expressed some interest in trading for third baseman Juan Francisco, who was designated for assignment Thursday. … The addition of 21-year-old pitcher Alex Wood to the roster this week made it 11 players under 25 years old on the Braves' 25-man roster, the most in the NL, according to Elias Sports Bureau. … Utility man Ramiro Pena had two of the Braves' four hits Friday to make him 12-for-27 (.444) with a double, a triple, a home run, six RBIs and one strikeout in his past 12 games, including 9-for-19 in five starts. During that period, he had five multihit games in seven games in which he had more than one at-bat. For the season, Pena was hitting .333, including .390 (23-for-59) with a .439 OBP against right-handers.
