Jason Heyward is looking on the bright side of his stint with the Gwinnett Braves. Even three strike-outs and going 0 for 5 with one walk in his 2013 Triple-A debut on Thursday could not dampen his spirits. The Gwinnett Braves see potential in him and are allowing him to make the trip to Scranton/Wilkes-Barre and officials say there will be “no demotion” in Heyward’s future.
Unfortunately, Heyward’s first game after his emergency appendectomy 19 days earlier could not have been less ideal. First off it was at 10:30 a.m. and against a knuckleball pitcher on Education Day (meaning there were a lot of middle schoolers on field trips). At least he is not trying to run away to the International League anytime soon.
Heyward compared the experience to spring training, saying just how good it felt to just be back on the field and get some at-bats. Heyward says the most important thing is to just keep seeing pitches. Against these minor league pitchers, Heyward had to adjust his hands, his stride, and the mechanics of his swing. As anyone who played baseball knows, thinking about all these things at once can make it a little hard to hit, not to mention against the knuckleballer, Steven Wright of the Pawtucket Red Sox.
What is probably the best thing to take away from this is that Heyward is not one of those people trying to rush back to the Majors. He wants to make sure that he is in sync with himself and back to normal. When asked how many games he will play with the G-Braves, he said it was not important. “It’ll be until I feel I’m ready to go.”
In other Braves news, Brian McCann was back behind the plate, finally recovering from the shoulder surgery last year, to help his teammates beat the Reds.
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