The Sports Xchange
MLB Team Report – Atlanta Braves – INSIDE PITCH
Left fielder Martin Prado got to stay in left field Sunday when third baseman Chipper Jones was out of the lineup with a severe bruise just above his left ankle. (Courtesy of a B.J. Upton hit.) The way bench third baseman Juan Francisco began the season, it appeared that Prado would be shuttling between those positions, but Francisco has snapped out of it, so Prado doesn’t have that anxiety.
With his role more settled, Prado has been able to produce three 10-game hitting streaks this season. The latest one ended with an 0 for 3 Saturday, a day after he scored three of the Braves’ five runs against the Rays. During the streak, he batted .476 (20 for 42) with a home run and five RBI, and had eight multi-hit games.
(A quirky note: this series was the first time Prado has played on artificial turf. The Elias Sports Bureau says that his 564 major league games without playing on artificial turf are second only to former Brave and once-again Pirates outfielder Nate McLouth, who has played 761 games on natural grass.)
Last season was a low point for Prado, who lost a month of the season with a staph infection in his right calf and lost much of his conditioning while on enforced bed rest. He ended the season with a career low .260 batting average.
But there’s more to Prado’s hot 2012 than his good health, critical though that is. Now, he has centerfielder Michael Bourn hitting in front of him — getting on base with regularity and requiring the attention of opposing pitchers — and he has first baseman Freddie Freeman hitting behind him. Freeman has been the National League Player of the Week for two different weeks already.
Prado started another streak in Sunday’s 2-0 win over the Rays, going 2 for 4, although he was thrown out trying to stretch his sixth-inning single into a double; he beat the throw but his hand slipped off the base and he was tagged out.
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MLB Team Report – Atlanta Braves – NOTES, QUOTES
–LHP Jonny Venters came on with one on and two outs in the eighth inning with the Braves leading the Rays 2-0 and immediately hit the first two batters he faced. That’s four hit batsmen and six walks in his last 14 innings of work. Venters got out of it when a smash hit by DH Luke Scott struck base runner 1B Carlos Pena for the third out.
–OF Matt Diaz was the DH Sunday against the Rays. Manager Fredi Gonzalez said for nearly two weeks leading up to the weekend series in Tampa that he was going to use the DH opportunity to semi-rest 3B Chipper Jones and C Brian McCann while keeping their bats in the lineup, but Jones’s bruised left leg foiled one idea, and McCann’s numbers against the Reds, whom the Braves play next, foiled the other. McCann has batted .346 with 10 home runs in 21 games at Great American Ball Park.
–3B Chipper Jones sustained a severe bruise in the back of his left leg above the ankle Friday night when he was hit by a B.J. Upton line drive in the third inning of the game against the Rays. He stayed in the game until 3B Juan Francisco pinch-hit for him in the seventh. Although he intended to play all three games of the weekend interleague series — even though manager Fredi Gonzalez was thinking of DH-ing him for at least one of those games — the fact that he could barely walk forced him to sit out. Jones hopes to play when the Braves move on to Cincinnati for four games this week.
–LF Martin Prado’s hitting streak ended at 10 games when he went 0 for 3 against the Rays on Saturday. During the streak, he batted .476 (20 for 42) with a home run and five RBI, and had eight multi-hit games. Prado was 2 for 4 Sunday.
–RHP Randall Delgado had a 2.55 ERA and gave up only one home run between a second inning grand slam by the Diamondbacks’ CF Gerardo Parra on April 22 and the third inning grand slam by the Rays’ RF Matt Joyce.
BY THE NUMBERS: 376 — Innings 2B Dan Uggla has played in the field. That’s every inning of every game, through 41 games.
QUOTE TO NOTE: “Roger and I were hanging on every pitch.” — Manager Fredi Gonzalez, watching RHP Brandon Beachy’s pitch count in the ninth inning of his first complete game, May 18 versus the Marlins, with pitching coach Roger McDowell.
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MLB Team Report – Atlanta Braves – ROSTER REPORT
MEDICAL WATCH:
–3B Chipper Jones was hit in the back of his left leg by a B.J. Upton line drive on May 18 and sat out games on May 19-20.
–RHP Peter Moylan (right shoulder surgery in October 2011) was long-tossing as of mid-May. He might throw his first bullpen session in late May.
–RHP Arodys Vizcaino (Tommy John surgery in March 2012) went on the 15-day disabled list retroactive to March 26. He is expected to miss the entire season.
–LHP Robert Fish (left elbow tendinitis) went on the 15-day disabled list retroactive to March 26.
ROTATION:
RHP Tommy Hanson
LHP Mike Minor
RHP Brandon Beachy
RHP Randall Delgado
RHP Tim Hudson
BULLPEN:
RHP Craig Kimbrel (closer)
LHP Jonny Venters
LHP Eric O’Flaherty
RHP Kris Medlen
RHP Cristhian Martinez
RHP Chad Durbin
RHP Livan Hernandez
CATCHERS:
Brian McCann
David Ross
INFIELDERS:
1B Freddie Freeman
2B Dan Uggla
SS Tyler Pastornicky
3B Chipper Jones
3B Martin Prado
INF Juan Francisco
INF Jack Wilson
OUTFIELDERS:
LF Matt Diaz
CF Michael Bourn
RF Jason Heyward
OF/INF Eric Hinske
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