Not all the excitement of the home-opener had worn off just yet. Mike Minor wanted to get in on the action.
With the Braves debuting new cream-colored throwback-style uniforms Saturday night at Turner Field, Minor had a throwback performance of his own. In a Tom Glavine-esque outing, the 24-year-old left-hander spun 7 1/3 innings, allowing only one unearned run and two hits and in a 2-1 win over the Brewers.
The Braves have won four straight, after losing their first four games. Saturday’s win also assured them of a second straight series win, and a more impactful one. It came against the defending NL Central champion Brewers as opposed to the Astros, who lost 106 games in 2011.
This time a year ago, Minor pitched the worst game of his major league career against the Brewers at Miller Park. On Saturday night, in his 25th career start, the Brewers got his best.
Minor gave up a first-inning single to Carlos Gomez and wouldn’t allow another hit until he had one out in the eighth. He retired 18 batters in a row before by Jonathan Lucroy doubled to center to end Minor’s night after 99 pitches. He walked one, hit a batter and struck out four.
“You don’t know where this guy’s ceiling is,” catcher Brian McCann said. “He just keeps getting better and better. It’s scary. This guy is competitive, a big-time athlete, and he has the will to be great.”
And this was after Minor told McCann early in the game it probably wasn’t going to be his greatest night. Minor had allowed the first two batters to reach, on a leadoff walk and single, and hit Corey Hart to lead off the second.
“He’d call a fastball away and I’d throw it in, or change-up away and I’d throw it down the middle,” said Minor, now 1-1 with a 4.38 ERA. “I was just getting by. I was trying to grind through it. He did a good job of keeping my head up, telling me ‘Hey, you’re pitching fine. You’re pitching great. They’re not scoring yet, so don’t give in any.’”
Minor didn’t, and that’s how he looked the most different from his spot start in Milwaukee last April 6, when his outing unraveled after he walked three batters in his first 14 pitches and never recovered.
On Saturday, he struck out defending NL MVP Ryan Braun with a change-up, despite crossing up McCann in the process after he’d signaled for a slider. Then Minor coaxed a double play from Aramis Ramirez on a nice turn by Juan Francisco. It was the first of two double plays in the first two innings to escape jams.
“That’s a sign of a guy that’s maturing, a guy that’s getting comfortable in the major leagues,” manager Fredi Gonzalez said. “They say you’ve got to have 30-plus starts before you can become a major league pitcher, and he’s getting close now and you’re seeing that.”
Minor answered the 18-run craziness of Friday’s home-opening win with the finest outing of this season by a Braves starter. No starter had made it past five innings in each of the Braves’ first seven games this season. Minor took care of that with room to spare, with a career-high 7 1/3 innings.
Ironically, it was after that when things got interesting, even with Jonny Venters and Craig Kimbrel ready to wrap it up.
The Brewers cut into the Braves lead 2-1 with an unearned run on two singles in three batters against Venters. Venters very nearly got out of the eighth unscathed by gunning down Lucroy at the plate, but pinch hitter Norichika Aoki drove in the Brewers’ first run on an infield hit just slow enough to rush Dan Uggla into a wild throw to first.
Kimbrel loaded the bases in the ninth before striking out back-to-back hitters for his fourth save in the Braves fourth win in a row.
“Once he got bases loaded, he beared down and made some great pitches,” McCann said.
The Braves took a 2-0 lead in the second inning thanks to McCann’s aggressive baserunning. A night after stealing his first base of the season, the supposedly slow-footed McCann, caused havoc when he advanced from first to third on a Jason Heyward seeing-eye single to left.
Braun threw wildly to third, allowing McCann to score and Heyward to take third base. Heyward then scored easily one pitch later on a Francisco double to right center.
