After going 4-for-28 in the Braves’ first six games, Ender Inciarte was 5-for-13 with three home runs and five RBIs in the past three games before Saturday.
The Braves’ center fielder and leadoff man had the second two-homer game of his career Wednesday in a win at Miami, and after the team’s day off Thursday he hit a two-run homer Friday in a 5-2 win against the Padres in the Braves’ home opener at new SunTrust Park. His three homers in 42 plate appearances this season through Friday, matching his home run total from 578 plate appearances in his first season with the Braves.
In Friday’s game, Inciarte also had SunTrust Park’s first hit (a first-inning single), scored the first run and caught a fly ball for the first out at the ballpark.
According to Elias, the sixth-inning homer that Inciarte hit Friday made SunTrust Park just the second of the current 30 major league stadiums to have the first home run hit there by a team’s leadoff hitter. The other was the Mets’ Citi Field, where Padres leadoff man Jody Gerut homered in the first inning of the first game played at the stadium in 2009.
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