Mike Minor takes his six-start winning streak into Sunday’s series finale, and is expected to face a Dodgers rookie instead of originally scheduled starter Ted Lilly.
The Dodgers plan to start right-hander Matt Magill in place of the veteran lefty, who was scratched because of a neck injury.
Instead of facing Lilly, who’s 5-2 with a 3.57 ERA in 11 starts against Atlanta, the Braves get Magill, who is 0-1 with a 6.58 ERA in five major league starts — all Dodgers losses.
Magill got no decision in his only start against the Braves, on May 19, allowing one run and five hits in five innings of a 5-2 Braves win. He faced Minor that day, and Magill will face the surging Braves lefty again Sunday.
Minor is 4-0 with a 2.11 ERA and a .185 opponents’ average in his past seven starts, with 45 strikeouts and nine walks in 47 innings. Since the middle of last season, he has established himself as one of the top pitchers in the National League — “Legitimately,” said Braves manager Fredi Gonzalez.
Minor is 14-6 with a 2.35 ERA and a .197 opponents’ average in 27 starts since the beginning of July, with 145 strikeouts and 32 walks in 172 1/3 innings.
Gonzalez said he now feels good going into games when Minor is pitching, which wasn’t always the case. For his first couple of seasons and through the first few months of the 2012 season, Minor was plagued by meltdown innings where he unraveled.
“I’ll give you an analogy,” Gonzalez said. “You come driving to the ballpark (now) and go, ‘Oh, good, Mike’s pitching,’ or, ‘(Julio) Teheran’s pitching,’ instead of going, ‘Oh (expletive), are we going to get through this game? Do we have enough bullpen to get through if he blows up in the third inning?’”
With Lilly out of the picture for Sunday, Gonzalez will make a lineup change or two. He intended to start backup outfielder Reed Johnson, who is 3-for-7 against Lilly. Left fielder Justin Upton is 2-for-26 against Lilly.
Gonzalez also said he would probably have Brian McCann catch again Sunday, after he caught Saturday night. If Lilly had pitched, he likely would have rested McCann on Sunday afternoon.
Freeman left on-deck: Replays showed that Justin Upton beat the throw to first base in the 10th inning Friday night, but first-base umpire C.B. Bucknor called him out for the third out in the inning, after Jason Heyward's two-out double and with Freddie Freeman on deck.
The Dodgers won the game 2-1 on an Anthony Varvaro wild pitch in the bottom of the 10th, after Varvaro gave up two singles and an earlier wild pitch in the inning.
If Freeman had batted, the Braves believed there was a strong likelihood of a different outcome, that they could have taken the lead and had Craig Kimbrel pitching the bottom of the 10th for the save.
“There’s nobody on this team that we want to come up to the plate other than him,” Upton said of Freeman, who has been not just the Braves’ hottest hitter, but one of the majors’ best in RBI situations. “It’s unfortunate that it happened the way it did, and he didn’t come up to the plate. The way he’s swinging the bat … I mean, to be honest, that’s one of the only dudes you want up there in that situation.”
Freeman had three hits, including a double, Friday to give him a .326 average with 15 extra-base hits and 28 RBIs in his past 32 games. In his past 15 games, he was 23-for-61 (.377) with eight extra-base hits (four homers) and 14 RBIs.
Freeman was batting .387 with a .430 OBP and a .559 slugging percentage with runners on base before Saturday, compared with .242/.321/.400 with the bases empty. With runners in scoring position, he had a .467 average (21-for-45) that ranked third in the majors, behind Miguel Cabrera (.500), and Carlos Beltran (.478).
As a team, the Braves were batting .233 with runners in scoring position, tied with the Cubs for second-lowest in the NL.
B.J. Upton was a league-worst 3-for-41 (.073) with runners in scoring position before Saturday, and Dan Uggla was fourth-worst at 5-for-39 (.128). With runners in scoring position and two outs, Upton was a major leagues-worst 0-for-25, and Andrelton Simmons was 1-for-22 (.045).
Beachy rehab: Brandon Beachy was impressive in his next-to-last scheduled rehab start for Triple-A Gwinnett on Saturday, allowing four hits, one run and three walks with eight strikeouts in five innings. He threw 60 strikes in 94 pitches.
In the final stages of his recovery from Tommy John elbow surgery, Beachy is tentatively set to make one more start for Gwinnett and come off the disabled list for the Braves’ June 18 doubleheader against the Mets at Turner Field.
Road woes: Friday's loss was only the Braves' fourth this season in the 29 games in which they scored first. While it bucked one trend, it continued another — their road woes.
The Braves are 13-2 with a 1.89 ERA, a .266 batting average and 81 runs scored in their past 15 home games, but were 4-9 with a 4.77 ERA, a .226 batting average and 43 runs scored in their past 13 road games before Saturday.
For the season, the Braves are 21-7 with a 2.21 ERA at home and 16-17 with a 4.12 ERA on the road.
