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Mike Minor pitched what you would call a gem tonight. The Braves won their fourth straight tonight by a score of 2-1 to level their record on the season at 4-4. Minor went seven and a third, only gave up two hits and a walk and got the win on Saturday night.
The Braves did their damage early on in the bottom of the second behind some wild play in the field. After a McCann walk, Heyward hit a grounder through the left side of the infield. Braun's throw to third attempting to cut down Mac hit him on the way to the bag and was kicked away by the third base umpire. After the ball went bouncing into foul territory and McCann had scored easily, Heyward used some heads up baserunning to make his way to third base that was left uncovered by the Brew Crew. Juan Francisco managed to crush a double to bring Heyward home and provide the Braves with all of the offense that they needed.
The Brewers cut the lead in half on Venters in the eighth. After Lucroy doubled and made his way to third on a single that Heyward wasn't quite able to grab, Venters was able to cut Lucroy down at home on a grounder back to him. However, Gamel scored on a grounder to Uggla that he tried to barehand to Freeman, but threw away to the dugout. Kimbrel came on to pitch the ninth and it got pretty hairy. The Brew Crew loaded the bases on two walks and a single with just one out. Kimbrel kept his cool though and struck out the next two batters he faced to end it and give the Braves their fourth straight win.
Not enough can be said about Mike Minor tonight, though. At one point he sat down 18 straight batters, before giving up the Lucroy double in the eighth before Venters came in from the pen. After giving up an early walk in the first and throwing a fair amount of balls in the inning, I was a bit worried that he was going to struggle with his command again, but that was not an issue after the first. He was hitting his spots and was going right after the Brewers hitters. We can all hope that he keeps this up. It was awesome to watch.