SAN DIEGO – After plenty of Braves fans had gone to bed late Monday night, Jason Heyward hit a ninth-inning home run to straightaway center field that served to underline a message his play had sent for the past week.
J-Hey appears to be back.
He had two home runs in the 7-6 loss against San Diego, his fourth career multi-homer game and first of the season. It was also his sixth multi-hit game in his past eight, during which he had raised his average 65 points.
“Bombs — hard-hit balls,” Braves manager Fredi Gonzalez said of Heyward’s homers. “He’s getting some good at-bats. Ever since he got back from the appendicitis, he’s starting to swing the bat real good.”
He still had just a .207 average entering Tuesday’s late game at San Diego. But the big right fielder has rediscovered his swing, after missing 3-1/2 weeks for an April 22 emergency appendectomy and then struggling in his first couple of weeks off the disabled list.
Heyward was 14-for-34 (.412) in his past eight games, with two doubles, three homers, seven runs, four RBIs, and a .459 on-base percentage. This after going 1-for-25 with no extra-base hits, one RBI, 10 strikeouts and a .200 OBP in his previous eight games, bottoming out with an 0-for-3, three-strikeout game on June 1, when he was pinch-hit for in the ninth inning.
“Just better timing,” Heyward said. “The better your timing, the better swings you’re going to take, and then it’s kind of a trickle-down effect. You get better pitches to hit, you don’t miss those, you don’t foul them off, and you don’t give pitchers enough chances to get you out.”
After stroking plenty of line drives and a few opposite-field hits during the past week, Heyward showed more good signs Monday by hitting some balls in the air with authority – balls that sailed far beyond the fences in a ballpark that’s considered to be one of the toughest for hitters.
The Braves got four runs in the ninth inning on homers by Evan Gattis and Heyward to put a scare into the Padres, who had built a seemingly comfortable 7-2 lead before the ninth.
“Yeah, that’s some good stuff there,” Heyward said. “Glad to contribute, man. Take some weight off other guys and produce in this lineup. I feel like we’re a really young team, we’ve all got some growing up to do, and we’re taking it in stride. But at the same time, we’re having fun and trying to go out there and improve every night.”
Hitting coach Greg Walker said he’s never been concerned about Heyward, even with his numbers way down.
“I love where Jason’s at right now,” Walker said. “Jason’s just got one thing to work on, and that’s getting his hands to the launch position on time, to give himself enough time to swing the bat.
“He knows how to swing the bat, he just gets rushed and he doesn’t give himself enough time. But last year at about this time is kind of when he started getting a feel for giving himself time to do it, and he took off and did great for the rest of the year. So I’m not too worried about Jason.”
End of a long stretch: Wednesday's game is the 20th in 20 days for the Braves. They have a day off Thursday before an 11-game homestand that includes three-game series against Sasn Francisco (starting Friday) and Milwaukee sandwiched around a five-game series against the Mets that features a June 18 split doubleheader.
Etc. Ramiro Pena was back in the lineup at third base Tuesday, after tweaking his right shoulder during Sunday's game at Los Angeles. Pena has been sharing third-base duties lately with Chris Johnson…. Gonzalez said Evan Gattis would catch Wednesday afternoon's series finale.
