FORT MYERS, Fla. -- Jason Heyward left Wednesday's game against the Red Sox with a sore left groin, but said he doesn't believe it's serious and just left to play it safe.
Heyward, who has played four of the Braves' first five games, expects to sit out Thursday’s game and then re-evaluate.
“To be safe I think [Thursday] is an automatic, take it easy to see where we’re at," Heyward said. “So play it day-by-day ... just be smart. But I don’t feel like it’s anything major. The key is to not let it get to that.”
Braves manager Fredi Gonzalez said he didn't think it would be more than a day or so.
Heyward said the soreness started a couple of days ago, just from conditioning.
He singled in the top of the first inning Wednesday, then it started bothering him in the field in the bottom of the inning. He mentioned it to trainer Jim Lovell, but wanted one more at-bat to see if he could get loose. He came out before his scheduled third at-bat.
“Long bus ride today and it felt a little sore, so this is not the time to push it,” said Heyward of the three-hour trip to Fort Myers. “That’s all it is, be cautious, be careful and be smart about it.”
Heyward went 1-for-2 with a single in the 6-1 victory. He’s hitting .364 (4-for-11) with a double this spring.
Center fielder Jordan Schafer also left Wednesday's game after rolling his left ankle cutting back to first base after singling in the fifth inning. But he was prepared to run sprints shortly thereafter and said afterward he's fine.
“When I saw the ball was going to be cut, I just tried to stop and my ankle rolled over,” Schafer said. “But it feels perfectly fine now.”
Hudson solid, Kimbrel improves
Tim Hudson continued the good work of the Braves rotation in his debut Wednesday.
He gave up one run in two innings, but the only hits allowed were an infield hit and a bloop to center by David Ortiz. He got better command of his sinking fastball in the second inning with three consecutive groundouts.
“Command with it for the most part was good,” Hudson said. “At times I left some pitches up a little bit for balls. I’m obviously not where I want to be. But all-in-all it was a positive day.”
Braves starters have allowed only one run in 10 innings in the first five games. Jair Jurrjens flips the rotation with his second start Thursday against the Tigers, the team that drafted him. The game is at 1:05 p.m. on ESPN.
“I’ve been really, really pleased with all the starters,” Gonzalez said. “And the relievers, too, other than that one game [against the Mets] they’ve been throwing strikes.”
Craig Kimbrel bounced back from a rocky first outing with a scoreless inning. The closer contender had given up two runs in one-third of an inning in his spring debut, on two runs, two hits and two walks.
He gave up a couple of hard hit balls Wednesday, on an Ortiz single and a deep fly ball to Jason Varitek, but allowed only one hit.
“I felt a lot more comfortable today,” Kimbrel said. “I felt like I kept the ball down better. I left some balls over the plate that they hit, but all in all I felt like it was a successful day.”
Among other highlights, Alex Gonzalez hit his first home run of the spring, putting a charge in a fastball from Red Sox starter John Lackey. Schafer gunned down the speedy Carl Crawford at third base, trying to advance on an Ortiz single off Hudson.
Vizcaino impresses in debut
Arodys Vizcaino became the first of the Braves' three "young guns" to see action in spring training, and he had the Braves' staff and coaches buzzing about it.
Vizcaino fired fastballs ranging from 94-97 mph in two scoreless innings in his debut against the Red Sox. He retired six of the seven batters he faced, allowing only an infield hit.
Braves director of baseball administration John Coppelella had the radar gun on him behind home plate, and after Vizcaino fired his first pitch -- a fastball for a strike -- he immediately showed the reading to Braves general manager Frank Wren and assistant general manager Bruce Manno sitting to his right.
Fredi Gonzalez’s eyes were wide in the dugout as well.
“Wow,” Gonzalez said afterward. “That was a pretty good two innings, too. Ball is down in the strike zone with some life. I don’t know exactly what he was throwing, but you could tell he had pretty good life to his fastball and his command was good.”
Vizcaino threw 16 of his 26 pitches for strikes, attacking hitters with primarily fastballs. He said he mixed in four breaking balls and two change-ups.
The 20-year-old Dominican native, whom the Braves acquired from the Yankees in the Javier Vazquez trade, is one of the three highly rated arms knocking on the major league door, along with Julio Teheran and Randall Delgado. Vizcaino was rated the 93rd overall prospect by Baseball America, Teheran fifth and Delgado 35th.
Delgado is scheduled to make his first appearance Thursday against the Tigers, and Teheran could debut Friday in a split-squad game.
