Reliever Luis Avilan is making progress with his strained left hamstring but still felt it trying to run in the outfield on Thursday and isn’t yet ready to pitch.
The Braves are trying to hold off on putting him on the disabled list as long as possible, but manager Fredi Gonzalez said if he’s not able to pitch by Sunday, the Braves will likely put him on the disabled list before heading to the light air of Colorado.
“We’re trying to be as patient as we can as long as he’s making progress, as long as we don’t need him,” Gonzalez said. “You don’t want to put him on the DL for 15 (days) and he could come back in seven or six. But come Monday, if he’s not progressing the way we want him to, we don’t want to go into Colorado with 11 (pitchers). I’d like to go in there with about 15.”
Avilan suffered a strain and cramping going into his motion Tuesday night against the Royals. The Braves were lucky it wasn’t much more serious with the key left-handed set-up man.
“I feel better (but I) have to wait a little bit more,” said Avilan, who stretched on the field with Braves pitchers before trying some running. “I’m walking normally now but I felt it a little bit when I started running.”
FREEMAN UPDATE
Freddie Freeman felt good after taking groundballs and batting practice Thursday in Triple-A Gwinnett and headed with the team to Charlotte where he plans to play in three rehabilitation games Friday, Saturday and Sunday. If all goes well with his oblique, he’ll rejoin the Braves in Colorado on Monday, the first day he’s eligible to come off the disabled list.
LINEUP WATCH
Gonzalez decided not to play Evan Gattis at first base Thursday night, electing instead to get Juan Francisco a start at third base and have Chris Johnson move over to first.
With the Pirates pitching three left-handers in four games this series, he didn’t want to sit Francisco three games. He planned to get Francisco in against the rookie Jeff Locke on Thursday and let Gattis play first on Friday against left-hander Wandy Rodriguez.
“I didn’t want to play Gattis two days in a row at first,” Gonzalez said. “So we picked the best left-hander that we felt Francisco could match up against and played him today.”
Gonzalez planned to catch Gerald Laird the first two games of the series, Thursday with rookie Julio Teheran on the mound and Friday against Rodriguez. Laird is 4-for-7 with a double and an RBI against Rodriguez.
Gattis is 2-for-his-last-19 (including his home run off Stephen Strasburg) since starting the season by going 9-for-23 (.391). He hasn’t seen as many fastballs in the past two series.
“They’re pitching him different but it’s the big leagues,” Gonzalez said. “Everybody watches films. Everybody watches Sports Center. But I’m not worried about that.”
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