Seven of the Braves’ 25 players on their Opening Day roster have spent time on the disabled list this season. Only three are still there, and one of those — Tommy Hanson — shouldn’t be for long.
That’s significant progress for the Braves.
In the past 10 days, they have seen the return of two-thirds of their starting outfield in Jason Heyward and Nate McLouth, and they’re coming off a 5-1 win over the Blue Jays on Wednesday that featured the impressive return of starter Brandon Beachy. The Braves right-hander struck out a career-high 11 in only six innings to complete a three-game sweep of the Blue Jays.
The Braves headed to San Diego, where they open a six-game West Coast swing Friday night with some momentum and are getting healthier by the day. They project Hanson will come off the disabled list Tuesday and make his next scheduled start in Seattle.
“The big key right now for us is Tommy coming back healthy,” Braves third baseman Chipper Jones said. “If we can run the five guys out there that we deemed in spring training would be our starting five ... for a long period of time, [and] if we get any offensive production at all, I think you might see us separate ourselves.”
The Braves have played only 26 games this season with their five-man rotation intact. In the month or so from April 16, when Jair Jurrjens came back from an oblique strain against the Mets, to May 13 when Beachy left a game against the Phillies with his own oblique strain, the Braves went 16-10 with a 2.78 ERA.
In the remaining 50 games without either Jurrjens, Hanson or Beachy healthy, the Braves have gone 27-23 with a 3.16 ERA.
The fact that the Braves were still only 4 1/2 games back in the National League East, pending the outcome of the Phillies game Thursday night, and leading the wild card, speaks to the depth of their pitching staff.
“They’ve kept us in every ballgame that we’ve played this year,” catcher Brian McCann said. “And our bullpen has come in when we’ve had the lead, and they’ve shut the door.”
McCann has carried the Braves’ offense while three other regulars have been in and out of the lineup — Heyward, McLouth and Jones. The latter has battled knee and adductor muscle soreness without going on the disabled list.
McCann has homered in four of his past five games and seven of his past 14. He has driven in 13 of the Braves’ 55 runs in those 14 games.
Since Jones rejoined the lineup Tuesday after missing four games with a strained adductor, the Braves scored five runs in back-to-back games. The Braves have scored five or more runs in consecutive games only twice in the past six weeks.
But before Jones can get too excited about the Braves returning to health, he wants the one player back who might make the biggest difference of all. Martin Prado, who was arguably the Braves’ most valuable player in 2010, is expected to be out with a staph infection until some time next month.
“There’s no replacing Prado,” Jones said. “He’s one of the best all-around hitters in our lineup and a guy that we rely on for offense, whether it’s igniting the offense or putting an exclamation mark on it. He’s that kind of dynamic player at the top of the order that we need back in there.”
