HOUSTON — Ozzie Albies didn’t feel the bone crack this time, not like when the Atlanta Braves’ All-Star second baseman broke his left foot taking a swing in June 2022. But after playing eight innings with a sore right big toe Monday night at Houston, postgame X-rays revealed a fracture, confirmed by an MRI.
He went on the 10-day injured list Tuesday, and the Braves recalled David Fletcher from Triple A. He’ll split second-base duties with fellow veteran infielder Luis Guillorme while Albies is out, which privately the Braves expect to be closer to one month than the three months he missed for the broken foot two years ago.
Guillorme contributed a blooped two-run double in the ninth inning of Tuesday’s 6-2 win against the Astros, the second consecutive night the Braves scored four runs in the ninth after doing it against Josh Hader in a 6-1 series-opening win. The Astros scored their only runs Tuesday in the ninth off reliever Aaron Bummer, who was pulled with two outs and closer Raisel Iglesias brought in to get the final out.
But this day for the Braves was about losing their standout second baseman and finding a way to keep winning at their current pace (11-5) while he’s sidelined.
“Shoot, both in spring training were very impressive at second base,” Brian Snitker said of Fletcher and Guillorme, a positive spin from the ever-positive manager. “But Ozzie’s a hard guy to replace. This guy’s an All-Star. But you know what, that’s just one of the things you’ve got to do.
“I feel good about the guys that we have to fill the void until he’s back.”
Introducing Luis!#BravesCountry pic.twitter.com/zLCJaBLouQ
— Atlanta Braves (@Braves) April 17, 2024
While the defense should frankly be as good if not better with Fletcher or Guillorme than with Albies, the offensive drop-off is substantial. Albies has hit .317 with seven extra-base hits, including two homers, in 15 games and leads National League second basemen in RBIs (14), on-base percentage (.386), slugging percentage (.492) and OPS (.878).
Losing their switch hitting two-hole slugger is another ding to the high-powered lineup of the Braves, who already were without All-Star catcher Sean Murphy, who’s on the IL after straining his left oblique in the opening game of the season.
Guillorme hit eighth Tuesday and grounded out his first three times up before his bloop in the ninth inning bounced into a seating section that juts out almost to the foul line in shallow left field. That doubled a two-run lead, and Chadwick Tromp added a two-run double before the inning was through as the Braves clinched the series.
They are 4-1 on a six-game trip to Miami and Houston and will go for a sweep of the Astros on Wednesday afternoon.
Until the ninth inning, Tuesday’s game had been a close one featuring a third consecutive strong start from former reliever Reynaldo Lopez, who pitched six scoreless innings of four-hit ball with seven strikeouts, lowering his ERA to 0.50. Both Braves runs before the ninth were driven in by Orlando Arcia on a second-inning homer and a seventh-inning sacrifice fly.
Center fielder Michael Harris II moved up to Albies’ second spot in the order and went 1-for-5 with a single, after which he was caught stealing on a strike-’em-out, throw-’em-out double play to end the fourth inning when Matt Olson whiffed.
Albies stayed with the team in Houston and could only watch, something the highly energized veteran does not enjoy doing and never gets used to, even if he’s dealt with a wide variety of injuries throughout his career.
“It’s a freak injury, but there’s nothing you can do about it,” said Albies, who was hurt when struck on the toe of his shoe by a breaking ball from Spencer Arrighetti in the second inning Monday. “I thought for sure (the pain) was gonna go away, but it didn’t.”
Add Opening Day starter Spencer Strider, who had season-ending elbow surgery Friday for a damaged ulnar collateral ligament, and that’s three of the Braves’ eight 2023 All-Stars on the IL in the first 15 games of the season.
“It’s part of the business,” Snitker said. “It’s what we do here. Everybody in baseball has to deal with this same thing, it’s just part of the journey. … The depth of your organization always gets tested every year. We do a good job of (having) a lot of guys in Triple A that have been up here, and it’s good to have that.”
Albies was walking with a protective boot in the clubhouse before Tuesday’s game. He won’t need surgery for this injury, which he characterized as more of a hairline fracture than the fully broken bone he had in his foot in 2022.
Albies said he fouled two balls off the same area around his big toe during the weekend series at Miami, which made it worse when the pitch struck the toe Monday as he turned his front foot.
Still, this was nowhere near the pain he felt when he broke his foot and immediately fell to the ground in 2022.
“It feels better than the (foot) fracture because that one snapped completely,” Albies said. “That one I felt a click and everything. This one I didn’t feel anything. I think that’s why I played the whole game.”
He even had a single and run scored in a four-run ninth inning.
When he took off his cleats after the game, Albies said the pain he’d felt throughout the game got a lot worse, and that’s when he was taken to the X-ray room adjacent to the Astros’ clubhouse.
“After I took my shoe off after the game, that released all the compression (holding the foot in place) and that’s when I felt like, uh-oh, something’s wrong,” said Albies, who was limping badly when he walked to the X-ray room.
“I’ll be honest, not really surprised (it was broken). Because normally when stuff like this happens, three or four innings later it kind of goes away. This one stayed, so I was like, ‘Ah, this is not feeling right.’”
“It’s a shame,” said Snitker, who said he wasn’t aware Albies was playing through pain but could tell in the ninth inning that he wasn’t moving well. “I went back and watched (the replay) — breaking ball right on top of his toe, it was a direct hit.”
Ozzie Albies has been placed on the 10-day injured list with a right great toe fracture after taking this pitch off his front foot in 2nd inning last night. pic.twitter.com/47iQiNfBKr
— Bally Sports: Braves (@BravesOnBally) April 16, 2024
Murphy hasn’t begun swinging the bat or running yet, so he seems likely to miss at least another two or three weeks. And now Albies could be out for at least that long. A year ago, Braves shortstop Orlando Arcia returned sooner than expected from microfracture in his wrist that sidelined him for just 3 1/2 weeks.
Albies sounded as if he hoped to be back even sooner than that, whether that’s realistic or not.
“It’s a fracture and you can see the crack on it,” he said. “So from now on, it just depends how I feel in the upcoming days. Hopefully, I feel better. I want to be back out there playing, of course. … If I feel good in two or three days from now and I can run, I’m gonna be out there. I don’t know the exact date.”
While a return in less than a few weeks seems doubtful, the fact Albies wants to be back that soon didn’t surprise teammates. Nor did his playing eight innings on a fractured big toe.
“Yeah, he’s tough,” third baseman Austin Riley said. “He doesn’t want to come out, ever. I think it just shows his toughness and his willingness to stay out there. I think it’s one of those things where with socks on, shoes on, that pressure … as soon as you take it off, it probably blows up a little bit.”
Although Albies is one of baseball’s smallest players — listed at 5 feet 8 and 165 pounds — and plays with reckless abandon, this was an injury unlike some he’s had in the past in that it had nothing to do with his aggressiveness.
“It’s just unfortunate,” Riley said. “Ball’s got to be thrown at the (exact spot). Foot’s moving, ball’s moving — like, it’s just perfect timing.”
“Just dumb luck,” Snitker said.
Harris bats second
The Braves moved Harris up to Albies’ second spot in the order Tuesday against Astros right-hander Hunter Brown, and Snitker said he might use the speedy center fielder in that spot against lefties, too, while Albies is on the IL.
“He’s a pretty versatile guy, as far as that goes,” Snitker said of Harris. “You can hit him in a lot of different spots and he’ll do very well.”
Harris hit .290 with two homers, eight RBIs and an .801 OPS in the Braves’ 15 games before Tuesday, batting sixth or seventh in 14 games and eighth in the other.
But while Harris has feasted on right-handed pitching, batting .342 with five extra-base hits and a .996 OPS in 41 plate appearances before Tuesday, he had just a .208 average with one extra-base hit and a .490 OPS in 25 PAs against lefties.
“He’s not a matchup guy; he hits lefties,” Snitker said before the game. “The tough lefties are tough on everybody. … With his speed, power and the whole thing, you can put him in the middle of the order and drive runs in, up top (where he can) score from first on a double. All that. Just a very versatile guy.
“It doesn’t bother him where he hits, he just goes up there and is just on the attack when he gets up there.”
(Photo of Orlando Arcia celebrating his second-inning homer: Troy Taormina / USA Today)
