For the second time in the past four games, the slumping Dan Uggla was out of the Braves lineup. Braves manager Fredi Gonzalez had Ramiro Pena at second base Monday night against the Cardinals, batting ninth in his unorthodox lineup.
Gonzalez said the move was in part because left-handers have hit .264 off Shelby Miller for his career, compared to .203 by right-handers, and the switch-hitting Pena allowed him to get another left-handed bat in the lineup.
Uggla also sat out Friday’s game against Tim Lincecum, a pitcher he’s 0 for 13 against.
But Uggla is hitting .190 in 27 games overall this season, at a time when the Braves were looking for signs that he is not going to be the same hitter of a year ago. Since Uggla homered twice on April 14 in Philadelphia, he has gone 9-for-55 (.164) with one extra-base hit and 18 strikeouts.
The Braves have second base prospect Tommy La Stella hitting .313 in Triple-A.
“Uggla’s not benched, he’s just not playing today,” said Gonzalez, who was then asked if Uggla would be back in the lineup Tuesday. “We’ll see where we are (but) yeah, I think the plan is to play (Uggla) tomorrow.”
Gonzalez was asked how he would characteristic the way he’s going to use Uggla during this stretch, whether he was thinking platoon, or mix-and-matching according to pitchers, and Gonzalez said he didn’t want to label it.
“I don’t even want to address that situation,” Gonzalez said. “Whatever we think is our best chance, and we’ll go from there. There’s nothing going on, as far as anything else. Nobody is getting benched. We’re trying to optimize our lineup.”
