ATLANTA -- After his eighth-inning gaffe on Friday helped the Atlanta Braves rally for a win, New York Mets shortstop Wilmer Flores is getting a day off Saturday.
Ruben Tejada will start at shortstop at Turner Field.
Flores spent too long looking potential tying run Andrelton Simmons back to third base in the eighth inning of the series opener, allowing Pedro Ciriaco to beat out a grounder, which was ruled an infield single. The Braves ultimately scored two runs in the inning and posted a 2-1 win.
It was Flores' latest costly miscue.
On Thursday in Toronto, Flores decided to leap on a line drive off the bat of Kevin Pillar -- except that the liner came in lower and Flores did not need to jump. The baseball glanced off his glove on what was ruled a single. That transgression helped undermine Bartolo Colon's outing.
"When we laid down the plans for this, one of the things was Wilmer's bat had to be in the lineup. And I agree with that," manager Terry Collins said of Flores' assignment as the shortstop. "He's got the potential to be a run-producing guy. What I'm worried about a little bit right now is I want to just let his mind have a day. The last time we did this, he came out swinging the bat really well after he had a day to kind of get his thoughts together."
