Glavine close to returning to Braves after strong Gwinnett outing

"I'm not going to sit here and tell you that I'm 100 percent thrilled with my location," said Glavine, who has been on the disabled list all season while recovering from shoulder and elbow surgeries last August. "I'm 100 percent thrilled with my stuff but not necessarily with my location."

Though the Atlanta Braves had no announcement on Glavine's return, Cox said before the club's game in Arizona he prefered he pitch one more rehab game before the club decides to activate him.

"In my mind, it certainly wouldn't hurt me to go out there one more time, work on my mechanics a little bit, work on my location a little bit," Glavine said." Where my velocity is right now, I feel good about going and pitching in the big leagues. I'm not 100 percent comfortable with where I'm locating right now."

Glavine threw 67 pitches Thursday, 41 for strikes. He was consistently in the low-80s on the radar gun, but his fastball occasionally reached 86 mph. In his previous start last Saturday, he gave up three earned runs and five hits in a three innings also for Gwinnett, when he threw 56 pitches, 33 for strikes.

"I did a much better job of pitching than the other night," Glavine said. "I felt like my location was a lot better."

Glavine got out of two jams with double plays. In the third inning, he escaped a first-and-third, no-out situation with a foul-out and a tailor-made 6-4-3 double play. In the fifth, Indianapolis put runners at first and second with no outs after a double and a walk. Glavine induced a 5-4-3 double play and then ended his day by fielding a sharp come-backer.

"If I hadn't got my glove up, it would have hit me in the mouth," Glavine said.

The 43-year-old left-hander suffered a setback April 12 when he re-aggravated his shoulder swinging the bat in a rehab start for Class AA Mississippi. Thursday he took his first live at-bats since the injury. He had a two-strike sacrifice bunt in the second inning and looked at three straight strikes in the fourth.

"I'm not going to say I'm not concerned about [hitting], but it's not like I'm going up there afraid to swing the bat," Glavine said. "I've been swinging the bat at the ballpark, taking BP, and I haven't had any problems. . . . I know at some point I'm going to have to swing the bat and I fully intend to do it, but for right now, I'm more concerned with going out there and getting comfortable, building arm strength and those types of things. I don't think they care too much about my hitting."

The 305-game winner is working on a one-year, $1 million contract that includes up to $3.5 million in bonuses, including $1 million for makes the active roster.