Daytime Braves baseball alert: If you happen to be around a TV today that gets MLB Network, the Gwinnett Braves will be televised live beginning at 11am. Julio Teheran is expected to start for Gwinnett.
Your one-page daily morning overview of Atlanta Braves news:
Atlanta Braves at Cincinnati Reds - May 21, 2012 | MLB.com ATL Recap
"All of the pitches were up, and that's what they did, hit home runs," said Minor, who dropped to 2-4 on the season. "If I keep the ball down, then those balls aren't hit as well, but they are good hitters and they did what they're supposed to do."
Same fan catches Leake, Cozart homers | Cincinnati Reds
The odds of catching not one but two home-run balls must be astronomical, but Reds fan Caleb Lloyd was the happy recipient of consecutive Cincinnati homers Monday night. The 20-year-old Lloyd, a junior soccer player at Thomas More College, gathered the home-run balls that were launched on consecutive at-bats by Mike Leake and Zack Cozart in the fourth inning against Atlanta starter Mike Minor. Both homers went to almost the same spot where Lloyd was sitting in the stands in left field.
Braves quotes after Monday’s loss to Reds | Atlanta Braves
Fredi Gonzalez: "It’s a teaching moment, a good moment for him to go back out there. He only gave up four solo home runs. I thought the kid pitched OK. It was a good chance for him to go back out there and hang around. We keep talking to our pitchers about just hang around, give yourself a chance to win a ballgame. "I thought he did better in that fifth and sixth inning. His breaking ball started to have more depth to it. Hopefully he carries this on to his next start and keeps getting better and learns from it."
Minor blasted for four homers in Braves’ 4-1 loss to Reds | Atlanta Braves
Of the career-high four homers Minor allowed, Gonzalez said: "It could have been the ballpark. [But] we didn’t hit. It was a weird game…. The old adage is that solo home runs don’t beat you. But we didn’t hit. We didn’t give him an opportunity. But I saw something in Mike today. I saw some growth in him."
Braves stressing patience with young pitchers | Atlanta Braves
In case you haven’t noticed, patience is not overly abundant with a good-sized segment of the blogulace, the Twitterverse, and others among the fan base of the Braves. Nor with the the fan base of a lot of other teams. It’s the times we live in. But the Braves don’t want to make a move as important as demoting a highly regarded young pitcher before they’re sure that’s the prudent course to take. They won’t do it to appease media members or fans, because team officials know that struggling is what young pitchers do from time to time, and sometimes for longer stretches than a lot of people are comfortable watching.
Chipper honored by Reds' gesture | braves.com: News
"It's unique," said Jones. "It's something I never would have thought of, but it's awfully nice and classy of the Cincinnati Reds organization to do that. It's not expected, but I look forward to getting out and looking at it and hopefully rounding it maybe once or twice."
Injured Chipper hopes to be back for Reds set | braves.com: News
"I feel like I'm probably a day or two away," said Jones. "I've got a golf-ball-sized blister right there that has got to go away. If I were to foul a ball off of that right now, you might as well just dig a hole and bury me right there at home plate, because I'm not getting up. It's still really painful, and my range of motion is not good enough to go out there and play defense, run the bases and all of that kind of stuff."
Francisco proves to be good sub for Chipper | braves.com: News
"I feel comfortable with everything, and I'm working hard every day, waiting for the opportunity," said Francisco. "This trade has been good for me. I've got a good opportunity here to play more than in Cincinnati."