It was a good night for the Braves’ pitching staff on Tuesday.  Spencer Strider made his second rehab start following his oblique injury.  Pitching for Gwinnett, Aragorn was excellent.  He went four and a third shutout innings, tossing his limit of 65 pitches.  He struck out eight and surrendered only one hit, a bloop single, and one walk, on a close 3-2 pitch.  Most significantly, his fastball looked a lot like his pre-injury fastball, consistently 96-98 mph with 18 inches of vertical break.  And he got ten whiffs on his slider on 15 swings at it.  They say Strider can go 80 pitches in his next start.  Don’t be surprised if he makes that one in ATL rather than Gwinnett.

More good pitching news: although Rafael Iglesias was placed on the 15 day IL with shoulder soreness, MRI showed no structural damage, just inflammation.  A couple of weeks rest and some ant-inflammatories should take care of it.  And no more sleeping on your right side, Iggy!  They are still claiming this was a result of sleeping on it wrong, but I suspect throwing a baseball 95 mph at 36 years of age had more to do with it.  In any event, he has been fantastic so far, and they will miss him, but not nearly as much as they would have if they did not have Robert Suarez, the NL saves leader for the last two years.  And some early season rest for Iggy may be helpful come September and October.

To be fair, the Braves’ pitching in last night’s 11-4 loss was not so good.  In fact, it was putrid—12 walks (!) and 10 hits in 8 innings.  But here’s the good news: the bad performances did not come from anyone who will likely be on the playoff roster this fall.  The pen had to turn in seven innings, thanks to a one inning start from Lopez (more on him in a moment).  Ian Hamilton and Joel Payamps went an inning apiece, and each gave up three runs.  Jose Suarez went three no hit innings, although he walked four.  The only 1-2-3 inning turned in by a Braves pitcher was by Aaron Bummer. 

Lopez claimed after the game that his shoulder feels fine, but I have my doubts.  He was actually fortunate that his line of 1 IP with 4 R, 5 H, and 3 BB wasn’t worse.  After 6 batters in the bottom of the first, he had already given up three runs and had the bases loaded with still no outs.  Somehow he escaped with no further damage—but having already thrown almost 50 pitches.  He came back out for the second but quickly surrendered a homer to James Wodd and a single to Luis Garcia.  At that point Lopez was mercifully done for the night.  I said above that Lopez is not likely to be on a playoff roster.  He has not pitched well so far this season, despite some early good results.  But his fastball velocity is not consistent and command of the heater and the slider has been very uneven.  As to starters, I am assuming some combination of Schwellenbach, Waldrep, Fuentes, and/or Ritchie will be better options by the end of the season.   On the other hand, Lopez may be healthy and just needs to work out his mechanics after a season long layoff.  If so, he will provide valuable depth for the rotation or the pen.  For now, though, I don’t feel good about him.

As to Payamps and Hamilton, either or both could get the old DFA sooner rather than later. Even so, they’ll probably go through waivers and sign with the Braves again. That’s how this works, right?

There were a few offensive bright spots.  The Drake crushed an 0-2 pitch for a long home run—and the pitch was less than a foot off the ground.  Dubon had two more hits.  MHII had an rbi double.  Eli White had a solo home run just inside the right field pole, and also was robbed of a triple to right on a great sliding catch by Wood.

I saved some of the best news of the night for now: each division rival lost.  The Mets led the Twins 3-0 after five innings, but lost 5-3 for their 12th straight loss.  The Phillies lost to the Cubs, and the Fish lost to the Cards.  So the Braves lead the division by five over the Nats and Marlins, 7.5 over the Phils, and 8.5 over the Mets.  God’s in his heaven—all’s right with the world.

So Tuesday was not a bad day for the Braves.  Still, it’s better to win than to lose.  They will aim to do just that behind Martin Perez tonight, going against some guy with a 7.11 ERA.