Mike Minor had gone 10 starts and nearly 10 months without a win before making up for some lost time Tuesday night. He put some advice from veteran teammates into action, pitching to contact, not walking batters, and having fun.
Throwing strikes and not backing down from hitters, Minor defeated the Blue Jays 5-1 after holding them to one run in a career-high seven innings. He struck out eight and walked only one, and it was intentional.
“You’ve got to come out of the bullpen breathing fire,” said Chipper Jones, who told Minor so during spring training. “That’s how you gain respect from the everyday players, and it seems like he was still a little timid up until tonight.”
On Tuesday night, the only time Minor walked a batter was to bring up the pitcher Zach Stewart with the bases loaded and two outs in the fourth, and it started a roll. Minor got out of that jam in the fourth on his way to retiring 10 in a row.
Eric O’Flaherty and Jonny Venters finished out the game by making it 16 in a row.
“He moved the ball in. He moved the ball out. He sank it. He cut it and changed speeds,” Jones said. “He’s got good enough stuff when he does that to dominate, and he did. He made a couple mistakes in the first inning to a couple left-handers up. Other than that he didn’t make any mistakes.”
Minor walked off with his first win since Aug. 31 against the Mets, his fourth major league start. Fourteen starts in, he has a better idea of what works and now some positive reinforcement to take back to Triple-A Gwinnett.
The Braves told him they would option him to Gwinnett to make room on the roster for Brandon Beachy, who returns from the disabled list Wednesday against the Blue Jays. The Braves also project Tommy Hanson will be ready to return from the disabled list for a start June 28 at Seattle.
But Minor knows he has given the Braves the confidence to call on him again.
“I understand everything,” said Minor, now 1-2 with a 4.59 ERA. “There’s not a spot for me, and there are guys ahead of me. Beachy is still better than me, and Tommy obviously is going to come back. I’ll just go down there and work on things.”
Braves manager Fredi Gonzalez said he told Minor that the move involves “bad timing.”
“Everybody is getting healthy,” Gonzalez said. “... I told him keep working on some of the other stuff, maybe the slider or curveball and he’s more than deserving to come back up.”
Minor blew a four-run lead in his previous start Thursday night against the Mets, but this time wouldn’t let it go. He gave up a run on several hard-hit balls in the first inning, but little after that.
“I knew balls were over the middle of the plate, that’s what they’re supposed to do,” Minor said. “I just had to settle myself down early on. That’s when I get too much emotion into it and want to throw it harder, than trying to throw for strikes and throw to the glove.”
He added a double of his own to help tack on a run in the fourth inning.
The Braves have won two in a row over Toronto to secure their first series win in this homestand, after dropping series to the Mets and Rangers.
The Braves scored only two runs in the series opener on a two-run homer by pitcher Tim Hudson in the first game this season the Braves had played without either Jones or Brian McCann in the lineup. With both Jones and McCann back in Tuesday night, the Braves scored five runs, something they have done only five times in 19 games in June.
McCann kept the June homer-barrage coming, with his sixth home run in his past 13 games with a two-run shot in the third inning. Jones picked up where he left off the night he strained an adductor muscle Thursday, with an RBI in his first at-bat and a single in his second.
Jason Heyward collected his second multi-hit game in seven games since returning from the disabled list. And Alex Gonzalez had two hits against the team that traded him to Atlanta.
The Braves had 10 hits and five runs in 3 2/3 innings off Stewart, who opened the game by throwing seven of eight pitches for balls.
“When a pitcher is missing his location like he was early, you feel confident and comfortable going up to the plate,” McCann said.
