As you surely remember, Marlins slugger Giancarlo Stanton had his season ended by a fastball to the face last September. He fully recovered, thankfully, and started wearing a custom G-shaped face guard in spring training.

Stanton wore the face guard for the first week and a half of the regular season until Wednesday, when he stepped to the plate without the guard for this first two at-bats against the Braves. Here he is in his second at-bat:

Then, later in the game, Stanton went back to wearing his face guard. Here he is during his third at-bat of the afternoon:

As it turns out, Stanton didn't wear the face guard for his final at-bat of Tuesday's game either. He told Manny Navarro of the Miami Herald that it was because he was facing a left-hander:

"Fine," said Stanton when asked how it felt to hit without the guard for the first time. "Just like my whole career prior."

As a right-handed batter, Stanton has a little more time to see the ball coming from a lefty than he does from a righty, which I assume is why he was comfortable shedding the guard. Lefty Eric Stults was on the mound for the Braves on Wednesday.

Stanton is off to a bit of a slow start at the plate -- he went into Wednesday's game 6-for-26 (.231) with no home runs -- and maybe he's trying to get himself going against lefties by ditching the guard.