MILWAUKEE -- He's still waiting for his first major league win, but Braves rookie Brandon Beachy has earned something that's just as vital.
The respect and admiration of his teammates.
Beachy pitched seven strong innings on Monday and worked out of trouble repeatedly on a day when he didn’t have his best stuff, and he didn’t care that he didn't get a decision.
He was just thrilled to help the Braves beat Milwaukee 2-1; he had a 3.00 ERA in three major league starts last season, but the Braves lost each of them.
“That’s the most important thing, whether it’s mine or somebody’s [win] in the bullpen,” Beachy said. “We got the win. It was a hard-fought game, a low-scoring, tight game. I have a feeling we might be in a lot of those this year. We pulled it out. Watching the bullpen work, we’ve got some great arms out there. It’s fun to watch.”
In his four starts, the Braves have scored four runs while Beachy has been on the mound. They scored none while he was in Monday; he left trailing 1-0 on Rickie Weeks' homer in the third inning.
Beachy, 24, retired the last nine batters he faced, five on strikeouts.
He watched the Braves pull out a win on eighth-inning homers by Martin Prado and Dan Uggla.
The Brewers stranded at least one runner in scoring position in the first, second and fourth innings against Beachy, who worked out of a two-on, no-out jam in the fourth.
“He’s a stud,” Prado said of Beachy. “He’s a tough guy, and we like that. He battled. He got in a couple of situations and he got out of it. We love that.
“We’re playing behind him, and we saw his effort all game long. We pumped up and we were in the dugout saying, we’ve got to do something here, because the guy has battled for us."
Veteran backup catcher David Ross got his first start of the season Monday and said he and Beachy both had to settle down.
“He was a little shaky early on, not getting his secondary pitches over and not locating like he wanted to,” Ross said. “But I thought he settled down really nicely and made pitches when he had to, which was a good sign. He’d bear down and got out of some serious jams, kept their hitters off balance after the third or fourth inning, after Weeks hit that home run.
“That was my first game [of the season]. I think we were both on the same page, adrenaline pumping. I don’t think he had nerves; it was more adrenaline.”
McCann gets a rest
Manager Fredi Gonzalez gave Brian McCann a rest on Monday when the Braves faced a left-hander, Chris Narveson. That was the first time Gonzalez had substituted for any regulars in the first four games.
Gonzalez indicated he doesn’t plan to start multiple backups in the same lineup. Former manager Bobby Cox often deployed lineups sprinkled with two or three backups for day games.
"I don't want to get to the point where you get two or three hitters out of the lineup at the same time," said Gonzalez, who plans to rest other regulars for a game during the Brewers series, including Chipper Jones tentatively in Thursday's finale.
Prado's in good place to continue surge
After hitting plenty of line drives right at defenders in the first two games, Prado has hit some where they couldn't be caught in the past two.
The Braves’ leadoff hitter is 5-for-9 with two doubles, a home run and a sacrifice fly in the past two games after going 0-for-9 in the first two.
At Milwaukee’s Miller Park, Prado is only 9-for-35 (.257), but with three home runs and 11 RBIs in nine games. He hit a grand slam last May in the Brewers’ retractable-roof stadium.
Uggla's all-or-nothing start
Two of Uggla's first three hits for the Braves have been homers; he's 3-for-17. … The Braves have won five consecutive games at Miller Park. ... The sellout crowd of 46,017 for Milwaukee's home opener on Monday was the second largest since the ballpark opened. ... Braves veteran Eric Hinske, a Wisconsin native, came out of the dugout before the game to shake hands with 11 members of the Super Bowl champion Packers who threw ceremonial first pitches.
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