After playing 56 games in 59 days, the Braves will have three days off in eight-day span beginning Monday, the latest quirk in their 2013 schedule. Manager Fredi Gonzalez plans to keep his starting pitchers in their regular turns, meaning all will get at least one extra day of rest between starts and some will have two extra days.
It’s not ideal, Gonzalez said, “But this time of year, they may need that (extra rest). Get a little breather, instead of skipping somebody and then the one guy who doesn’t pitch, he goes, like, 17 days without pitching.”
The Braves have a three-game weekend series at Milwaukee, then days off Monday and Thursday on each side of a two-game series at Kansas City. Then another day off Monday, July 1.
This comes soon after a stretch in which they played 20 consecutive days before a day off June 13.
“It’s almost too much,” Gonzalez said of the upcoming off days. “You’d almost wish you could pick your off day when you need an off day, but it doesn’t work that way. But you go, like, a couple of stretches with 20 straight, and then all of a sudden you have three in eight days. But it is what it is. We’ll take advantage of it somehow.”
Durable rotation: When the Braves had rookie Alex Wood start a game in Tuesday's doubleheader against the Mets, they were the last major league team this season to use a sixth starter, in their 71st game. The Braves went 70 games using only five starters, 10 more than Detroit's next-high total this season.
It was also the latest the Braves had gone before using a sixth start since 2000, when they didn’t use a sixth until the 90th game of the season. Atlanta’s rotation that season consisted of Greg Maddux, Tom Glavine, Kevin Millwood, Terry Mulholland and John Burkett, who wasn’t used until the 17th game of the season.
Ayala rehab assignment: After nearly two months of the disabled list, veteran reliever Luis Ayala started a new rehab assignment with Triple-A Gwinnett and pitched a scoreless inning with one walk in a 3-2 win at Buffalo on Wednesday.
The right-hander was placed on the 15-day DL in late April with anxiety disorder, which he developed after being diagnosed with high blood pressure. Ayala lost significant weight during the early weeks dealing with the condition, and struggled in a brief minor-league rehab assignment last month.
He was shut down and sent to the team’s training camp in Florida to rebuild strength, and Ayala had worked out with the major league team during the current homestand before being sent out on another rehab assignment.
Gonzalez said there was no specific timetable for Ayala’s return, but that it was possible he could rejoin the major league team after two or three more minor league appearances if he looks ready.
