Braves left fielder Matt Kemp so far hasn’t been able to pull off the difficult balancing act of letting his nagging hamstring injury heal while continuing to play.
Kemp was out of the lineup for the second consecutive game Saturday. He left Thursday’s game because of what the Braves said was tightness in his left hamstring.
“It’s not serious; it’s just something that’s irritating,” Kemp said Saturday. “I keep irritating it. Once you do your hamstring at some point, it can get irritated. I’m just trying to figure out a way to make it heal and be able to play at the same time.”
Kemp sat out a game June 16 because of soreness in the same hamstring. He pinch hit during a game June 17 and started the next five before the latest flare-up.
“That’s what hamstrings are,” Kemp said. “It don’t ever just go away. There’s always something there. I’ve just got to figure out a way to play. It’s tricky. Hamstrings are tricky.”
The Braves placed Kemp on the 10-day disabled list in April because of a right hamstring strain. He also had multiple DL stints during the 2012 and 2013 because of issues with both hamstrings.
Entering Saturday, Kemp was hitting .320 with a .362 on-base percentage and .549 slugging percentage over 61 games.
