BRAVES NOTEBOOK: B.J. Upton savors 1,000 hits

ATLANTA — Yvonne Upton has a lot going on, during one of her extended visits to Atlanta — watching her sons B.J. Upton and Justin Upton play for the Braves and enjoying time with her grandson Riley. On Sunday, she had another happy “chore” on the to-do list — procuring the bat and ball from B.J’s 1,000th career hit.

Upton, who reached the milestone Saturday night with an infield hit off Reds pitcher Mike Leake, gave them to her after Sunday’s game and before the team left for Miami.

“She keeps all my stuff like that,” Upton said. “She’ll find a place for it. She’ll probably get it framed and put together.”

Upton said Jason Heyward predicted before the game Saturday he’d probably get it on a bloop, considering he’d had two balls hit hard Friday night with nothing to show.

“It was very similar to a bloop but I’ll take it, and I’ll take the 1,000,” Upton said. “Any time you can stay around long enough to get 1,000 hits in the big leagues, that’s pretty cool.”

Justin Upton enters tonight’s series opener against the Marlins only 85 hits away from joining his brother in the 1,000-hit club. He was among the 33,702 fans at Turner Field giving B.J. Upton a standing ovation Saturday night.

It was a nice moment for B.J., who heard his share of boos while hitting .184 last year in the first year of his five-year $75.25 million contract.

Upton has been more comfortable at the plate in recent weeks — and has hit safely in 13 of 16 games with an at-bat. He has seen noticeable improvement from the prescription glasses he started wearing Friday night.

Upton said he was told as a teenager he should wear glasses to drive at night and he never did.

“My vision is pretty good,” Upton said. “It’s at night. Day games aren’t as bad as night time.”

Still he plans to wear his new glasses during day games as well. The ones he’s worn this weekend are standard glasses, “which are getting annoying at the plate,” Upton said. “I keep having to push them up on my face.”

He has ordered wrap-around glasses from Oakley which he is expecting to arrive by the start of the series with the Marlins.

And yes, he’s heard about the Twitter account @BJGlasses that popped up over the weekend and got mention on MLB Network.

“That’s unbelievable,” Upton said. “My agent told me. All right, cool, I guess.”

NO PANIC: Chris Johnson enters today’s game in a 3-for-25 stretch that had dropped his batting average to .241. The third baseman, who started the season in the cleanup position, has one homer, three walks and 23 strikeouts in 87 at-bats.

It’s early, but that’s not what was expected from the guy who finished second in the National League batting race last season with a .321 average, and ranked among league leaders with a .321 average with runners in scoring position.

“I just need to get my bat path a little better,” Johnson said during the weekend. “I’m a little in and out of the zone right now and need to make some adjustments. That’s why I’m popping balls up or coming around them at shortstop, my bat path is in and out of the zone. I’ve been working on that, because once my bat path is right it doesn’t matter about my timing — if I get beat a little (late on pitch) my bat’s still in the zone.”

Johnson was 6-for-12 against left-handed pitchers, but just 15-for-72 (.208) against right-handers. This after batting .299 against right-handers in 2013 and .284 in more than 1,000 at-bats against them during the past three seasons combined.

He said he didn’t think it was a matter of any particular difficulties against righties.

“I think it’s just general struggles,” Johnson said. “I’m not really pressing a panic button or anything like that. I know my swing. I know I just need to get my bat path right, get my bat in the right spot, then everything will come.”

DECISIONS, DECISIONS: David Hale came to the ballpark packed and with a suit to fly on the Braves chartered trip to Miami after Sunday’s game. He’s not sure yet of his fate — and whether he’ll be sent back to Triple-A when Mike Minor is activated from the disabled list — but he wasn’t slowing down to ask.

“They haven’t told me not to, so I’m going to get on that plane until they kick me off,” Hale said, with a smile. “At least give me an off day in Miami, right?”

Hale will head out knowing he’s done about everything in his power to make the impending roster decision as tough as possible on the Braves.

In what could well be his last start for a while, Hale pitched eight dominant innings, allowing only two hits, in a 4-1 win over the Reds. He retired 21 of 22 batters he faced after allowing a double in the first inning, including 14 in a row.

“I kind of needed that one with all these decisions going on,” Hale said. “Make it difficult on them, put it in their court.”

Minor is ready to pitch when that spot comes up again Friday against the Giants, after a five-outing minor league rehabilitation from shoulder tendinitis (plus another start against the Braves Future All-Stars).

Braves manager Fredi Gonzalez has indicated the Braves are not considering a six-man rotation, which means Hale could either find himself back in Triple-A Gwinnett staying stretched out or in the bullpen, which he prefers of the two scenarios.