Viera, Fla. — While rookie starter Jair Jurrjens struggled in the sixth inning of a 4-1 Braves loss against Washington, Chuck James was mowing down Braves minor-league hitters in a camp game back at Disney's Wide World of Sports.

Jurrjens allowed one run through five innings, but faced four batters in the sixth and gave up two singles, a double and a walk before being removed with no outs. He was charged with 10 hits and four runs.

He said he threw too hard in the final inning and overthrew, flattening his pitches.

"He was great the first five, then he got a little tired," Cox said.

Jurrjens is expected to be in the season-opening rotation, despite allowing 14 hits and eight earned runs in 7-2/3 innings in his past two starts.

Incumbent James has shown good arm strength and command, after being brought along slowly because of a rotator-cuff injury at the end of last season.

While James is probably going to begin the season at Richmond, Wren said the lefty would be ready to start for Atlanta as soon as the Braves needed him.

"If we needed him, he'd be ready right away," Wren said of James, who pitched four innings Saturday and allowed one hit and one walk with five strikeouts.

Closer Rafael Soriano had an encouraging performance in his third appearance of the spring, striking out the first two of four batters he faced in an inning of work. He gave up one hit and threw hard fastballs and a nasty slider.

"Good to see him break that [slider] out," Cox said.