Brian McCann returned to the Braves starting lineup Monday for the first time in a week, after spending six days battling a flu-like virus. It was a good sign for a team that’s been playing without three middle-of-the-order hitters and has lost a season-high eight in a row.

Turner Field already felt emotionally charged and patriotic for Memorial Day, but Master Sgt. David Sims managed to make some 42,000 people audibly gasp with a collective “ohhhh.” He and the Braves surprised his wife and four children with an on-field reunion during the Braves-Cardinals game, coming home a week early from his six-month deployment with the Air Force in Afghanistan.

The Braves have an eight-game losing skid and an 0-8 record on Mondays after another ugly loss on Memorial Day. But it’s too early to say they are behind the eight ball in terms of their seasonal goals. It is, however, fair to say they aren’t providing reason any for confidence among their many followers.

The Braves had the national spotlight with ESPN in town and their best pitcher going Sunday night in Brandon Beachy against the Washington Nationals. But neither was enough to overcome what’s fast becoming an oppressive losing streak. The ailing Braves had managed their first lead of the weekend series but fumbled it away with two unearned runs in the fourth inning and watched the Nationals work over their former teammate Livan Hernandez on the way to a 7-2 victory and a weekend sweep.

Brian McCann was out of the Braves starting lineup Sunday night as he continued to battle flu-like symptoms. The catcher was nearly back for the nationally televised game against the Nationals, according to manager Fredi Gonzalez, but wasn’t quite ready after going through pre-game running drills.

How the winning run scored: Christian Marrero delivered the game's lone run with a sixth-inning RBI triple that scored Ernesto Mejia. At the plate:Mejia and Felix Pie had two hits each, accounting for four of the Braves 7 hits. The Red Wings managed only 3 hits and could not capitalize on 3 Braves' errors.

Mike Minor put the skidding Braves in another hole after giving up a three-run run homer and four runs in the first two innings Saturday afternoon against Washington, but that wasn’t even the worst part of their day. The Braves rallied to tie the score on Dan Uggla’s two-run homer in the fifth, but that was before the faltering bullpen faltered again, and the defense turned shoddy, and the patchwork lineup failed to produce any more runs.

The Braves sent ace Tim Hudson to the mound Friday night to put a stop to their four-game losing streak against a Nationals team he had owned throughout his career. What seemed like the perfect formula fell apart on a perfectly weird night for Hudson.

CINCINNATI – Randall Delgado had already given up two grand slams this season including one last weekend, and the Braves weren’t going to risk him giving up a third at the most homer-friendly ballpark in the National League. After the Cincinnati Reds loaded the bases against Delgado with one out in the sixth inning Thursday, the Braves brought in Kris Medlen to face Devin Mesoraco.

As lonely as it might feel to be Mike Minor these days, in the midst of such a trying stretch in his young career with the Braves, there is somebody who knows exactly what he feels like. Tom Glavine, a two-time Cy Young award pitcher, 305-game winner and future Hall of Famer, was about where Minor is entering this weekend series against Washington, 32 starts into his career.

After Tommy Hanson’s strong start and Eric O’Flaherty’s nifty escape in the eighth inning, the Reds ended the drama quickly in the ninth inning against Braves reliever Cristhian Martinez. Todd Frazier hit a walk-off homer with one out in the ninth to give Cincinnati a 2-1 win against the Braves, who have lost four out of their past five, including all of the first three games of a four-game series at Great American Ball Park.

If it wasn’t too surprising when the Reds hit four home runs off the Braves’ Mike Minor on Monday night, it was another matter when they hit three off Brandon Beachy on Tuesday night. After allowing only one home run in his previous 72 innings, Beachy gave up a career-high three homers in the first four innings of a 4-3 loss to the Reds at Great American Ball Park.

How the winning run scored: In top of the first, with two outs and the bases empty Stefan Gartrell smacked a solo homer to center field off of Red Wings starter Luke French to give Gwinnett a 1-0 lead. Ernesto Mejia followed with a double, and he was driven in by Drew Sutton.

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. – Freddie Freeman spent part of his weekend switching between glasses and various contact lenses and trying out assorted eye drops in a somewhat successful effort to alleviate his dry eyes. But that didn’t distract the Braves first baseman from his hitting approach, which includes swinging at the first pitch more than any other National League batter.

It was just a glance. A quick look toward the stands offered Tyler Pastornicky a reminder of how far he had come. When the Braves rookie got his first major-league hit in the season-opener against the Mets he turned to see family and friends reacting wildly to his accomplishment.

Series preview: Braves at Reds When (TV): 7:10 p.m. Monday-Thursday (SPSO). Radio: 680, 93.7, 100.5 Probable starting pitchers: Monday: Braves LH Mike Minor (2-3, 7.09 ERA) vs. RH Mike Leake (0-5, 6.21) Tuesday: Braves RH Brandon Beachy (5-1, 1.33) vs. RH Mat Latos (2-2, 4.

For the second time in four weeks, Braves rookie Randall Delgado got wild and then got grand-slammed, putting his team in a hole in the early innings. And just like the time before, it was a day game without Chipper Jones in the lineup.

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. – It’s not as if the Braves are a bad team at home, it’s just that their engines have hummed at a different level on the road during the first quarter of the season. They did it again Friday, mounting a two-out, two-run rally in the fifth inning of a 5-3 win against Tampa Bay in an interleague series opener at Tropicana Field, the Braves’ 10th win in their past 12 road games.

Brandon Beachy wanted to be more efficient this season and go deeper in games. Well, the perfectionist reached the ultimate goal eight starts into it. The 25-year-old Beachy pitched the first complete game of his career Thursday night via shutout in a 7-0 win over the Marlins.

The Braves have used a torrid offense to hide what’s ailing Mike Minor – scoring 22 runs in his previous two starts – and won in spite of his struggles. But Wednesday night in their series opener against Mark Buehrle and the Marlins, Minor had nowhere to turn.

The Braves offense has improved this year, no doubt about that. But for much of the past few days, they’ve been shouting it from the mountaintops. The Braves swept a weekend series from the defending World Series champion Cardinals by scoring 23 runs, then on Tuesday took aim at Johnny Cueto, the Reds right-hander with the best ERA in baseball.

They came home flying high after one of their best road trips in years, but the Braves were brought back down by a loss to the Reds that extended their Monday blues. Jonny Venters allowed two runs on three hits in the eighth inning and the Braves began a four-game homestand with a 3-1 loss, their fifth in seven games at Turner Field.

ST. LOUIS  -- Chipper Jones might not reach 3,000 hits and 500 homers, traditional Hall-of-Fame numbers, but he’s coming up on a pretty special number of his own. He needs 14 RBIs to surpass Mike Schmidt and George Brett for the most RBIs by a player whose primary position was third base.

ST. LOUIS – What was supposed to be a challenging, three-city trip through Denver, Chicago and St. Louis turned out to be a joyride for the Braves, who just swept the defending World Series champion Cardinals on Sunday to finish out the trip 7-2. The Braves worked their offensive game plan to perfection Sunday for a 7-4 win to complete their first three-game sweep at Busch Stadium since Sept.

ST. LOUIS -- Somewhere Gene Kerns is smiling. The Braves scout who discovered Brandon Beachy and his dynamic fastball at a Virginia wood bat summer league in 2008, had to get a kick out of watching the undrafted free agent get the better of Adam Wainwright Saturday night -- a former first round draft pick of the Braves in 2000, and now 20-game winner with the Cardinals.