LAKELAND, Fla. -- Saturday was a beautiful 80-degree day in central Florida, a no-care-in-the-world kind of day for most everybody around sun-splashed Joker Marchant Stadium except Braves pitcher Brandon Beachy.
The Braves right-hander is bearing down, trying to win the fifth starter's job in a narrow race with Mike Minor. All things being equal, the Braves figure to favor Minor, a first-round pick who would give the Braves their only left-handed starter to face a lefty-dominated division.
So for all intents and purposes, Beachy needs to be better. He made his case by one-hitting the Tigers for five scoreless innings Saturday in a 2-1 split-squad loss to the Tigers. He walked three and balked once, but struck out three. The only hit he allowed was a single by Ramon Santiago in the third.
Minor went six innings in a minor league game Saturday, allowing four runs (three earned), but overall in Grapefruit League action his ERA is 0.90, and Beachy’s is now 1.80.
Rodrigo Lopez allowed three runs (one earned) in 4 2/3 innings against the Mets in the other split-squad game. The veteran is a long shot to overtake Minor or Beachy.
"You know as well as I do that the Braves want Mike Minor to win that fifth spot," Braves third baseman Chipper Jones said. "In all honesty, it would be a great help to our team and our rotation if we had a lefty in the starting five. But you cannot discount what Brandon Beachy brings to the table. And what he's done down here in spring training. He's done everything possible to win that fifth starter's job. They both have."
Of the three candidates, Beachy drew the toughest assignment Saturday -- the Tigers in Lakeland with five regulars in their lineup, including Magglio Ordonez and Miguel Cabrera.
Beachy walked two in the first inning, but that was after getting ahead of both Austin Jackson and Cabrera and nearly striking out both on borderline calls. He worked around the damage, which included a balk, by striking out Victor Martinez on a 3-2 fastball to strand both runners.
That was the first of six in a row he retired before Santiago’s single.
“I’m just trying to be smarter about things,” Beachy said. “If I’m going to miss, I’m going to miss off the plate.”
Beachy needed 29 pitches in the first, but settled in to get five innings on 84 pitches, 50 for strikes.
In two B games and three Grapefruit League games combined, Beachy has allowed only four runs on eight hits in 19 innings (1.89 ERA), with seven walks and 21 strikeouts.
"It may go all the way to the wire," Braves manager Fredi Gonzalez said of the impending decision. "They're pitching that good."
Versatile Lucas
A skill the Braves covet in Ed Lucas, a non-roster invitee, is his ability to play a capable shortstop. They need a bench player comfortable at the position to back up Alex Gonzalez. Both Lucas and Diory Hernandez fit that profile.
But in what appears to be a two-man race for that bench spot, Lucas is hitting for higher average -- as of Saturday he was hitting .321 to Hernandez’s .296 -- and offers more options.
Lucas has played five positions in spring training -- all four infield spots and left field. Hernandez can play shortstop, second and third.
Lucas, a Dartmouth graduate and long-time Royals farmhand, says he can handle right field as well. He also has played a handful of minor league games in center field and played catcher a little one year in instructional league.
“I’m honestly comfortable and prepared to play any of the seven positions I’ve been playing,” Lucas said.
Lucas played shortstop in high school and college and became a utility player only out of necessity. As teammates got hurt, he tried new positions, doing anything to get on the field and to the next level. Now at age 28, he has a good shot to make the Braves' opening-day roster.
“I’m no spring chicken anymore in terms of making the big leagues for the first time,” Lucas said. “I feel like I’m a late bloomer, and there’s a lot of good baseball [left in me].”
Game updates
Reliever Scott Proctor, who's in the running for the final bullpen spot, did not make his scheduled appearance Saturday against the Tigers because he's battling bronchitis, Gonzalez said. In his absence, minor-league extra Arodys Vizcaino pitched the ninth and took the loss after allowing three consecutive hits, including a walk-off two-run triple by Andy Dirks.
In the Braves' other split-squad game, a 3-3 10-inning tie against the Mets in Lake Buena Vista, Brooks Conrad hit his first home run of the spring -- a two-run shot -- and made a diving play in the field to rebound from his two-error day in Port St. Lucie on Friday.
Craig Kimbrel, the projected co-closer along with Jonny Venters, pitched a perfect ninth against the Mets in his first back-to-back work of the spring. He has made six consecutive scoreless outings to lower his spring ERA to 4.32. He has eight strikeouts and only one walk during that span.
Matt Lipka, the Braves' supplemental first-round draft pick of last year showed off his speed on a double to the right-field corner in his first action as a minor-league extra.
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