Williams, Uggla deliver aggressive message (Rendon update)

ATLANTA - The Atlanta Braves are still paying Nationals second baseman Dan Uggla a lot of money, $13 million dollars to be exact this season. The remaining loot is part of a five-year deal Uggla inked back with the Braves in 2011. Uggla's performance, especially at the plate, submarined gradually and the Braves finally released him last summer.

The three-time All-Star entered last night's game in the fifth inning to a sea of boos from the small but boisterous crowd at Turner Field. More taunts and jeers in Uggla's first at-bat turned into thunderous cheers when the 35-year-old struck out.

But in the eighth, Uggla responded with an RBI triple and ended up scoring on the play as the throw to third was late and errant, allowing him to cross the plate.

Uggla, the 10-year veteran, has plenty of experience in the game with individual and team struggles. He's focused on action, not excuses, in dealing with the Nats' current six-game slide.

"It's not about catching a break," Uggla said. "You know, weird things happen in this game. We just gotta take it upon ourselves to turn it around. We can't wait for things to start to go our way. We just gotta sack up, you know, and make it turn around. I think everyone in this clubhouse feels the same way. I know after playing against these guys for so long that we have the makeup to do it."

Though the Nats scored four runs last night, they only managed five hits. They also committed a season-high four errors, including two by starter Doug Fister and one by shortstop Ian Desmond, his ninth already this month.

Williams was asked before yesterday's loss what needs to be done to not allow a slumping team to lose further confidence, considering the high expectations that continue to pressure them.

"You remember why you're here," Williams said. "You remember what got you here. Any time a guy's in an offensive slump, generally it starts with a couple bad games and then you start thinking about what you're not doing well. The flip of the switch, if you will, is to remember what you do when you do well, and do that. What we are is a team that's very aggressive and we run the bases hard and we play the game hard. And if we do that, we've got a chance to win.

"It's hard to do that when you don't have a lot of opportunities, but what we have to do is have the aggressive mindset. We have confidence in our guys. They have track records, and it will be there. The question is: How do we get there? We get there by being ultra-aggressive. We get there by letting 'er fly and playing the game that we want to play. So that's the message, and that's how we're going to approach it."

Infielder Anthony Rendon was a late scratch last night from what was supposed to be his third minor league rehab game at Double-Harrisburg. The initial message from the Nats was that Rendon was feeling fatigued. The third-year star is recovering from a sprained left MCL suffered early in spring training. Williams elaborated more on Rendon's condition and what prevented him from making the start last night.

"Just knee, cold weather, knee just was not getting loose like he wanted to," Williams said. He had a good work day - took grounders, hit, did all the things - but it was a little chilly there, and he had a little issue getting loose with the knee so we just decided to be safe with that. He went through BP and everything."

The plan was for Rendon to play at least seven innings last night and then nine tonight. The temperatures should be warmer for the 6:30 p.m. first pitch in Harrisburg, PA.