Uggla ‘just rolling' with 24-game hit streak

Uggla’s batting average was .178 when the streak started July 5. He was hitting .212 entering play Tuesday night. So what happened? He says he just feels like himself.

“This is pretty much what I’ve done my whole career, without the streak obviously,” said Uggla, who has admitted to feeling a little pressure from the five-year, $62 million extension he signed. “It’s a struggle I had to go through I guess. Who knows? Just rolling with it.”

Since June 28, Uggla has raised his average 37 points. He has driven in 22 runs in his past 29 games, after driving in 27 in his first 80 games.

His streak continued through a pinch-hit at-bat in Cincinnati on July 22, when he hit the game-winning homer and a scoring change two nights later, when an error by third baseman Miguel Cairo was changed to a hit.

“If the scoring thing hadn’t changed, then that would have been par for the course all year,” Uggla said. “I hit that ball hard; it’s not a routine play. But earlier on in the year, they call it an error.”

Lineup watch

One day after making Jair Jurrjens the first Braves pitcher to bat higher than ninth in 70 years, Braves manager Fredi Gonzalez went to a more traditional lineup Tuesday, hitting Derek Lowe in the ninth spot.

Gonzalez had said he would probably bat the pitcher eighth again with both Michael Bourn and Jose Constanza in the lineup — two speedsters he can use as pseudo-back-to-back leadoff hitters. But that changed against the left-hander John Lannan because both Bourn and Constanza hit left-handed.

Gonzalez said he’ll also take into consideration how well the seventh hitter is doing against a pitcher to make sure he’s not pitched around. “It’s not one of those ‘I’m just going to hit the pitcher eighth and forget about it,’” Gonzalez said. “I think there’s a lot more to it.”

Gonzalez had Constanza in the lineup for the fifth consecutive game Tuesday, since he was called up for the injured Nate McLouth. Gonzalez moved him to right field and sat Jason Heyward, even though both bat left-handed.

“Give J-Hey a breather,” Gonzalez said. “Matchups today.”

Heyward is 1-for-9 in his career against Lannan.

Delgado promotion

The Braves promoted prospect Randall Delgado from Double-A Mississippi to Triple-A Gwinnett on Tuesday, putting all four of their standout pitching prospects on the same staff, along with Julio Teheran, Arodys Vizcaino, and Mike Minor.

Along with Cory Gearrin and Jairo Asencio, the Braves have a host of pitching reinforcements available. “Come September, we’ll see a pretty good-sized contingency from those guys,” Gonzalez said.

Delgado, rated the 35th overall prospect by Baseball America, went 5-5 with a 3.84 ERA in 21 starts for Mississippi, with 46 walks and 110 strikeouts.

Jones update

Chipper Jones took batting practice and fielded ground balls for the second consecutive day Tuesday, but his quadriceps still bothers him in the field. He’s likely to continue pinch hitting through Wednesday.

“Overextending for ground balls is still pretty uncomfortable, having to go three or four steps to my left or right,” Jones said. “Hitting, throwing, fielding ground balls right at me — not a big deal. Everyday stuff, having to play defense and run the bases is still not good.”