Third baseman Jose Bautista doubled in his first at-bat with the Atlanta Braves against the San Francisco Giants in Friday night's 9-4 loss at SunTrust Park, the same day he was called up from the minors.

Braves manager Brian Snitker liked what he saw from him: "He made the plays, and I thought he looked all right."

Bautista, 37, has 331 home runs in a 14-year career with the Pittsburgh Pirates, Toronto Blue Jays and three other clubs. He hit .203 with a .674 OPS and 23 homers in 157 games with Toronto last season.

He finished the game 1-for-4 with two strikeouts.

Bautista went unsigned as a free agent for the entire offseason before agreeing to a minor league deal on April 18 that will pay him a base salary of $1 million in the big leagues.

He will be playing third base for Atlanta even though he has been an outfielder almost exclusively since 2011.

"I don't consider it part of my repertoire as a player,'' Bautista said before the game. "I'm just looking to contribute on the field and help these guys win ballgames.''

But Bautista looked comfortable at third, as he fielded Buster Posey's grounder to begin a double play.

"He made a couple of really nice plays today," Atlanta catcher Tyler Flowers said, adding, "He can play. He's an athlete."

Bautista hit .256 (11-for-43) in his tuneup with Triple-A Gwinnett, but he was 6-for-15 with a home run in his past five games.

With Ryan Flaherty logging the bulk of the time at third base, Atlanta leads the National League with a .302 batting average and ranks third with an .856 OPS at the position. Flaherty is expected to slide into a utility role to make room for Bautista in the batting order.

"I just felt like my body was ready,'' Bautista said. "I got enough at-bats to where it's similar to spring training. That doesn't guarantee anything up here, so I've just got to do what I expect out of myself when the games start.''

Friday's loss snapped an Atlanta five-game win streak, which saw the Braves take over first place in the NL East with a three-game sweep of the Mets in New York this week.

Information from the Associated Press was used in this report.