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Your one-page daily morning overview of (mostly depressing) Atlanta Braves news:
Braves quotes after Monday loss to St. Louis | Atlanta Braves
Fredi Gonzalez, on how to break out of this slump: "Good pitching, good hitting, timely hitting, scoring some runs like we had been doing early on in the season. Right now we’re not doing either of those two things, but the one thing we’re doing [is] you see our team playing hard. And they’re not giving up. They’re battling. But two runs a game ain’t cutting it and giving up four or five is not doing it either. Go out tomorrow and get a good pitching performance and score some runs."
Braves’ losing skid reaches 8, and Monday record is 0-8 | Atlanta Braves
"We’ve got to do something to get this monkey off our back," Hanson said after giving up six runs and eight hits in 3-1/3 innings.
St. Louis Cardinals at Atlanta Braves - May 28, 2012 | MLB.com ATL Recap
"I don't think anyone is panicking right now," Braves starter Tommy Hanson said. "Obviously when we come to the field, we want to win and we want to win that night. But nobody is panicking around here. We're still above .500 right now. As soon as we start playing good. ... We were just in first place."
Braves’ slump has cut wide swath across team | Atlanta Braves
It takes pretty much a complete team effort to put together a 22-9 surge like the one the Braves had earlier this season. And it takes a fairly complete team effort – with key injuries and illnesses added to the mix, in this case – for a talented team to lose seven in a row and get swept in consecutive series the way the Braves just did at Cincinnati and at home against the Nationals.
Freeman to visit eye doctor again Tuesday | Atlanta Braves
"I keep putting myself back to square one when I put the contacts back in," Freeman said. "Take them out, put drops in, it’s irritating everything again, finally came to the conclusion take a few days and let my eyes rest and do the drops and hopefully that works."
Jurrjens getting into groove in Minor Leagues | braves.com: News
Jair Jurrjens provided his finest start since being demoted to Triple-A Gwinnett. Jurrjens allowed just three hits in eight scoreless innings against Rochester on Sunday afternoon. "Like night and day," Gwinnett manager Dave Brundage said after the game. Jurrjens showed good command with a fastball that rested around 90 mph and touched 93 mph.
Strikeouts a welcome sign for Spruill | MiLB.com News | The Official Site of Minor League Baseball
"Being able to throw my pitches for strikes [has helped]," Spruill said of his improving ability to get batters to swing and miss. "All three of my pitches have been working as out pitches for me, and being able to do that is definitely leading to fewer hits and fewer runs each game."