Dan Uggla played his first game Friday night wearing new contact lenses and already came away encouraged.
He went 0-for-2 with two walks but also hit a flyball nearly 400 feet to left center field in the fifth inning of a 2-0 loss to the Brewers.
“I felt great,” Uggla said afterward. “The way I saw the ball tonight was night-and-day different than what it’s been. To get adjusted this quick to the contacts is really encouraging.”
Uggla is hitting .192 on the season with 92 strikeouts in 229 at-bats, but he didn’t strike out in four plate appearances Friday and felt different at the plate in general.
“I wasn’t having to think about anything,” said Uggla, who flew out to center in his final at-bat. “I wasn’t having to ‘oh gosh’ be in a rush, or anything like that. It was easier to be on time.”
Uggla was diagnosed with astigmatism in spring training and tried contacts then but quit wearing them after he failed to see immediate improvement.
Uggla continued having problems seeing breaking balls, especially - “it just kind of looked like a white blur coming in” - and went back for more extensive tests with Braves eye doctors Thursday in Atlanta. This time he was fitted with what he feels is a better prescription.
“I didn’t go into it in spring with the right mindset it,” Uggla said. “I was just doing it to try it, hoping that instantly, I’d be able to see twice as good as I could before.”
Friday night’s reaction wasn’t instant, but it wasn’t far from it.
