The ball soared from Dan Uggla’s bat to the left-field seats at Turner Field and those fans who had booed him were temporarily silenced by the shock of the moment.
Uggla, the player the Braves are still paying not to play for them, had smashed a go-ahead homer for the Nationals in the ninth inning on Tuesday. The boo birds were back by the time Uggla rounded the bases but his critics could do nothing about the scoreboard.
Uggla had returned to Atlanta and beat the Braves in spectacular fashion.
“I can’t lie,” Uggla said in the afterglow of Washington’s 13-12 victory. “That felt good.”
Uggla’s three-run home run off closer Jason Grilli completed Washington’s comeback from an early 9-1 deficit. It was his first homer of the season and just his eight hit of any kind since joining the Nationals this season. Four of those hits have come in Uggla’s two games against the Braves, including a pair of RBI triples.
After Jose Lobaton singled and Danny Espinosa walked with one out in the ninth, Uggla went to the plate with a chance to put the Nationals ahead with a home run.
“That’s pretty much kind of all I was thinking about,” he said. “I was just chomping at the bit to get a chance and an opportunity to do something like that.”
Uggla had started just two of the previous five games for the Nationals before they came to Atlanta after he hit .129 in his first 31 at-bats. Uggla entered Monday’s game as a sub after Yunel Escobar left with a hand injury suffered on a collision with Andrelton Simmons, and he was in the lineup at second base on Tuesday.
Some Braves fans have received Uggla harshly but, even after he beat their team in dramatic fashion, Uggla did not respond in kind.
“This stadium, this place, is very special to me,” he said. “I’ve had a lot of great memories. Whatever the case is, everybody knows the story of how it’s kind of gone the last couple years. But that doesn’t take away from any of my good memories here.
“I love Atlanta. I love the fans here. I love everything about this place. This is baseball. You move on.”
The Braves gave Uggla his unconditional release last July. They still owed him $19 million on the five-year, $62 million contract extension he singed when he was traded to the Braves in November 2010. Those payments continue until the end of this season.
At the time of his release, Uggla was one of the worst everyday players in the majors going back to the 2013 season and had been benched and then suspended by the Braves for a game. It was a steep decline for Uggla, who had been an All-Star with the Marlins in 2006 and 2008 and with the Braves in 2012.
That fall explains why some Braves fans have bad feelings for Uggla, though Braves first baseman Freddie Freeman said he doesn’t think Uggla deserved the reception he got.
“As a friend, it’s tough, obviously,” Freeman said. “He played the game the right way, hustled every single time. Fans are going to react how fans want to react. It’s definitely tough, but he kind of shut them up in the ninth inning.”
Uggla said he was unfazed by the boos.
“It didn’t get in my head at all,” Uggla said. “I didn’t really know what to expect. But I had so many people throughout the course of the off season come up to me and tell me how supportive they are and how proud they are and how they are going to miss me. But that’s baseball.
“I didn’t perform to my capabilities the last couple of years and that’s kind of the way it goes. I’ve moved on and hopefully they’ve moved on, and that’s that.”
