WASHINGTON – A half-hour after saying he hoped to return to the lineup within a couple of days, Braves left fielder Justin Upton felt so good hitting balls in the indoor batting cage that he was inserted in the lineup Saturday against the Nationals.
He missed three consecutive starts with what a doctor diagnosed Friday as a sinus condition that might’ve been triggered by four days spent in the mile-high altitude of Denver. Teammates were pleased to see his name in the lineup after eagerly anticipanting his return to face the Nationals.
Even without him, the Braves won the first two games of the four-game series that runs through Sunday.
Upton’s symptoms began a couple of days after the Braves returned from a series at Colorado last weekend, and Upton left Tuesday’s game complaining of dizziness and lightheadedness.
He had been limited to one pinch-hit appearance in the past three games before Saturday. Upton was examined by a doctor Friday at Nationals Park, after showed up at the ballpark that day feeling worse than during the previous three days.
Upton spent his first seven major league seasons with the Diamondbacks in the NL West Division and made multiple trips to Colorado to play the Rockies every year. While he sometimes had some minor issues after those visits to the high altitude, he said he never had anything as severe as the discomfort and dizziness he had this week.
“Yesterday was probably the worst day out of all of them,” said Upton, who was prescribed some decongestants and said he felt better Saturday afternoon and hoped to be back in the lineup soon.
It wasn’t known just how soon that might be until Upton gave a nod to reporters from the indoor batting cage and manager Fredi Gonzalez announced 20 minutes later than he was in the lineup.
“I think it was just a real bad case of allergies,” Gonzalez said. “I know I’ve had them, and it sometimes kind of acts like fly-like symptoms. You get the stuffiness, you get achy, all that stuff. They helped him with some kind of – allergy medicine, let’s call it – and he feels really good today.”
With each game that Upton missed, Gonzalez had noticed the rampant speculation on Twitter and elsewhere, with some people diagnosing ailments such as vertigo based solely on symptoms they read in reports of Upton being out of the lineup.
“All of a sudden, everybody’s got Internet and they go to WebMD or whatever and come up with all kinds of crazy stuff,” he said. “So it’s nice that we don’t have to (wonder). We can say ‘This is what it is, this is what we think it is, let’s pump him with this.’ And he responded.”
