LOS ANGELES -- Braves reliever Peter Moylan has a bulging disc in his lower back, but he's confident he will be able to treat it without having a third back surgery in a little over a decade.
The bulging disc in the L5-S1 vertebrae was diagnosed when Moylan had an MRI exam on Monday in Atlanta. The Aussie sidearmer was placed on the 15-day disabled list on Saturday after he tried pitching through soreness.
"He's going to get an epidural, and hopefully that works and we'll see how he is in 15 days," Braves manager Fredi Gonzalez said.
Moylan, 32, had surgery for a bulging disc in 2001 and again in 2003, when he was out of professional baseball. He said Sunday that he didn’t believe the current injury was as serious because the symptoms weren’t as severe.
After the diagnosis on Monday, Moylan said he thought he could avoid surgery and come back to pitch this season.
Heyward back hitting second
With the offense struggling and No. 2 hitter Nate McLouth not doing much to help, Gonzalez kept Jason Heyward in the second spot in the lineup on Monday night for the second day in a row -- this time with McLouth dropped to the bottom.
Gonzalez moved Heyward from No. 6 spot to No. 2 on Sunday when McLouth was out of the lineup, and said at the time he wasn’t sure if he’d keep Heyward there.
He settled that Monday by penciling Heyward in at No. 2, where he hit for most of his rookie season in 2010, and dropping McLouth to eighth.
Rookie first baseman Freddie Freeman, on a nine-game hitting streak, moved from eighth to sixth.
“We obviously are struggling to score some runs," Gonzalez said. "I’d move my wife up to second hole or first hole if I knew we’d score some runs, activate her, whatever you’ve got to do.
“Again, I don’t think any lineup is written in stone. One of the things you can do as a manager is tinker, so we tinkered a little bit. I think Nate could help us win ballgames whether he’s hitting in the second hole, the eight-hole, defensively, running the bases."
Heyward hit an eighth-inning home run on Sunday in the Braves’ 3-2 loss, the right fielder’s team-high fourth. He was batting a modest .240 before Monday, but had 11 walks – a fourth of the Braves’ total – and a .377 on-base percentage.
McLouth had a .212 average with no homers, three RBIs and a .269 OBP, and had three walks and one stolen base in three attempts.
“Fredi talked to me about it,” McLouth said. “We just haven’t been scoring enough runs, and that’s what he told me. He just wants to mix it up, and Jason has been getting on base. He can hit anywhere in the lineup."
Freeman comes home on streak
It took Freeman several weeks to adjust to higher-level pitching after minor-league promotions in past seasons. Apparently he’s adjusting quicker this season.
After going 2-for-15 with five strikeouts in his first five games, the rookie first baseman and Southern California native was 9-for-27 (.333) with two doubles and a homer in a nine-game hitting streak before Monday night’s series opener at Dodger Stadium.
“It’s just nice to get going, no matter where you’re playing,” said Freeman, who is from Villa Park, Calif., about 30 minutes south of Dodger Stadium.
Of his improved results at the plate, Freeman said it was a matter of getting his feet under him and doing the things he’s always done.
He was up with the Braves last September in his first major league callup, but Freeman was used almost exclusively as a pinch-hitter in the midst of a pennant race. There wasn’t much chance to get used to major league pitching in that role.
“Yeah, you can’t really do much,” he said. “It was good experience to get to know what happens, but baseball-wise, just one [at-bat] here and one there -- you still need to get some more at-bats in.”
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