Given the chance by Braves, Segura proves to be a hit again
PHILADELPHIA » With two outs in the 10th Thursday, and with Bryce Harper at third as the potential winning run, the 8,529 in Citizens Bank Park began a chant they’d been waiting a year to unload. “Didi,” they shouted. “Didi, Didi.” They wanted to see Didi Gregorius, welcomed back after a strong but silent 2020 season, torment the Braves. Instead, Atlanta manager Brian Snitker ordered Gregorius to be intentionally walked.
With that, Jean Segura was all but ready to shout out something of his own.
“OK,” he said. “I’ll take it.” Properly insulted, Segura hammered Nate Jones’ first pitch, a 96mph sinker, past Austin Riley at third, Harper paraded home and the Phillies had a 3-2 victory.
In itself, Snitker’s decision to have the right-handed Jones pitch to the right-handed-hitting Segura instead of the lefty-swinging Gregorius hardly was a managerial blunder. It’s just that Segura, twice an AllStar and a career .285 hitter, was not particularly flattered by the choice.
“Every time they walk to pitch to me,” he said after his fourth career walk-off RBI, “I plan to hit.”
Joe Girardi, who strives to stagger left-and-right-handed hitters in his batting order, likes using Gregorius and Segura back-to-back.
“They’re both capable of driving in runs,” he said. “And Jean has come up big for us a number of times in the short time I’ve been here.
“It’s a tough decision for a manager what to do there. And I am glad I didn’t have to make it.”
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Even with the Braves’ starting left-hander Max Fried, Girardi started left-handed-hitting Adam Haseley in center over switch-hitting Roman Quinn.
But after going 1-for-3, Haseley left the game in the eighth with what Girardi characterized as a hamstring issue.
He will be re-evaluated Friday, an off day for the Phils.
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Even with strict virus-protocol limits still in place, the crowd Thursday provided enthusiasm.
“I’ve been through a number of Opening Days,” Girardi said. “It’s always exciting. There’s always butterflies. You look forward to it. I feel this one is different because we didn’t have fans last year. It just has a completely different feeling.
“I am really looking as the season progresses to us having more and more fans and really getting back to normal. When you see people come through the turnstiles, it’s just going to feel like we are getting our lives back, somewhat. To see fans in spring training was really, really nice. It felt like we’re alive again.
“It just felt like baseball.”
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The Opening Day temperature was in the 40s, with winds at 22 mph.
Girardi had experienced worse “My first Big Ten series against the University of Wisconsin, in Madison,” the former Northwestern catcher said. “We started the game and it was about 36 degrees with a 26-degree wind-chill factor. And we got snowed out in the fifth inning. That was the worst Opening Day I’ve ever been through. The only way to stay warm was that the parents that came brought us hot chocolate on the bench. There were no heaters.”
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NOTES » To clear roster room for Ronald Torreyes, left-handed pitcher Kyle Dohy was outrighted to Lehigh Valley after clearing waivers. … Rhys Hoskins was 1-for-5 with a run scored. He has reached base safely in 32 of his last 33 games. … At 4:05 Saturday, Zack Wheeler (4-2, 2.92 in 2020) will oppose Braves righthander Charlie Morton (2-2, 4.74).