Atlanta Braves Chris Johnson Made A Horrible Play, Should He Be Benched?

Chris Johnson made a great play turn into a horrific play on Tuesday night for the Atlanta Braves.  With one out and the bases loaded in the top of the 6th inning, Hunter Pence hit a sharp ground ball to Chris Johnson (who was playing first base).  Johnson made a nice snag with his glove, then to first to get Pence out.  BUT, he forget how many outs there were and that play only made two outs.  Well, there’s three outs in baseball, CJ!

Johnson ran to first, got Pence out and then started running towards the dugout.  As he got a few steps passed first, Johnson must have heard the crowd, players or just remembered the outs and quickly turned around.  The look on his face was demoralizing.  The camera then quickly went to Braves manager Fredi Gonzalez sitting in the dugout.  In the few seconds they were on Fredi, you can tell by his look what he was thinking.

“I screwed up.  Stupid mental error,” Johnson said after the game on Tuesday.

Gonzalez may have backed Johnson a little during his post-game interview.

“It’s a hard double play anyway, Gonzalez said.  “There is no excuses for not knowing how many outs, but everyone has mental lapses.”

“I feel comfortable over there, I’ve seen a lot of time over there in the past few years,” Johnson told 680 the Fan radio. “Though it will give me more chances to play, it stinks to lose a guy like Freddie Freeman.”

Johnson has played in 19 games at first base in 2015, and 38 games in his seven-year career (32 with the Braves).

Freddie Freeman has been placed on the disabled list with an oblique strain so the Braves called up Joey Terdoslavich.  Over the next month and a half (or however long it takes Freeman to recover from his injury), Johnson and Terdoslavich will probably get the majority of the time at first.

The Giants starter for Wednesday is Madison Bumgarner.  Johnson is 8-21 against him in his career.  Terdo has never faced him.  With Bumgarner being a lefty, Johnson will get the start tonight and bat fourth.

These kinds of boneheaded play would have gotten me benched growing up…so what happens when you get to the major leagues?

Let’s hear from you, if you were in Gonzalez’s shoes what would you do?