Braves reliever Luis Avilan had to leave Tuesday’s game in the seventh inning with a left hamstring cramp, after diving out of the way of a piece of a broken bat, but he said after the game he expected to be fine to go on Wednesday.
Avilan suffered a leg hamstring strain last April after he cramped up delivering a pitch against the Royals on April 16. He missed the next four games. But this time doesn’t think it’ll be an issue.
“It wasn’t that bad like last year, but at least I knew what was going on,” Avilan said. “I feel fine now. I think I’ll be perfect for tomorrow.”
Daniel Murphy had singled up the middle with two outs in the seventh and Avilan dove, trying to avoid a shard that broke off his bat. He vilan came up grabbing his left hamstring. He tried to throw a warm-up pitch and stopped short, before walking off the field with trainer Jeff Porter. He was replaced by Anthony Varvaro.
“I felt it again and I was like ‘I’m not going to push it,’” Avilan said. “I’ll be 100 percent tomorrow.”
He knew it was an improvement that he was able to walk off the field on his own. He took some heat from his teammates last year after he had to be carted off the field for what turned out to be a hamstring cramp.
“Yeah, I told the other guys I looked way better this time,” said Avilan, laughing.
