ANAHEIM – Brandon Phillips was out of the Braves’ lineup for Monday night’s interleague series opener against the Angels, not surprising after the veteran second baseman left Sunday’s game at San Francisco with a right-knee contusion from being struck by a foul tip.
Braves manager Brian Snitker said Monday afternoon that he planned to have Phillips serve as designated hitter for Tuesday’s game against the Angels if he progressed after getting treatment Monday afternoon and during Monday’s game.
“I was hoping maybe he’d be able to DH (Monday), but you just didn’t know if he’d be able to after the plane flight (from San Francisco) and all,” Snitker said. “Hopefully just give him the day and he can do that (DH) tomorrow.”
After Monday’s game, Snitker sounded confident Phillips would play Tuesday and said he took batting practice without difficulty. He had hoped he wouldn’t have to use Phillips at all Monday unless there was an emergency and he needed him, but the Braves got through the 6-3 win without requiring Phillips.
With his usual No. 2 hitter out of the lineup, Snitker decided to move all of what had been his recent (since Freddie Freeman got hurt) regular Nos. 3-7 hitters up one spot in the lineup for Monday’s game, including Nick Markakis moving up from third into the second spot, Matt Kemp moving from cleanup to third and Matt Adams from fifth to fourth.
“We took Brandon out and I figured I’d just move everybody else up, get them up there (to bat) more, rather than stick somebody else in there in the (second spot),” Snitker said. “The more those guys (at the top of the order) come up, the better. I stuck Dansby (Swanson) in the 2-spot the other day. But I just felt like you’re better off, if we pulled Brandon out, to just bump everybody up and get them coming up more.”
The fifth through ninth spots Monday had Tyler Flowers, Rio Ruiz, Danny Santana, Jace Peterson and Swanson. Santana was in left field with Kemp as DH, and Peterson was at second base in place of Phillips.
