MLB Player News

Jansen notched the save after allowing one run on two hits and striking out one in the ninth inning Thursday against the Brewers.

Jansen surrendered a leadoff home run to Christian Yelich and allowed the tying run to come to the plate, but he managed to retire Travis Shaw for the final out of the game, securing the save. Jansen has given up a run in three of his previous four outings, although he's yet to blow a save opportunity in 2019. The 31-year-old owns a 2.89 ERA with 12 punchouts over 9.1 frames.

Pomeranz (0-2) allowed four earned runs on six hits and three walks while striking out seven across 4.2 innings to take the loss Thursday against the Nationals.

Pomeranz struggled to work efficiently during his Thursday afternoon outing, allowing runs and multiple baserunners in four of his five innings. He did still rack up strikeouts on the strength of 16 called strikes and 11 swinging strikes. Though he now has 23 strikeouts across 18.2 innings for the season, he has also allowed eight walks and failed to complete more than five frames in any of his four outings.

Minter is likely unavailable for Thursday's game against the Diamondbacks after being used out of the bullpen three of the past four days, Mark Bowman of MLB.com reports.

The Braves are also likely to stay away from Jesse Biddle due to workload concerns, leaving Chad Sobotka, Dan Winkler, Luke Jackson and Wes Parsons as the team's main high-leverage relievers for the series finale. Even if one of those four pitchers notches a save Thursday, it's still expected that the bulk of the Braves' ninth-inning opportunities will fall to Minter moving forward after co-closer Arodys Vizcaino (shoulder) was recently moved to the injured list and ruled out for the entire regular season.

Iglesias's slider velocity is down so far this season, from 85.46 mph to 83.4 mph, C. Trent Rosecrans of The Athletic reports. It was against the slider that Joc Pederson hit Monday's walk-off homer. "It's not a secret that my slider isn't sharp as it was last year," Iglesias said, according to translator Julio Morillo. "I think I've just been focused to work on other pitches, and I have not worked on my slider as much."

Last year opposing hitters hit just .139 with a .236 slugging percentage against his slider, but the results haven't been as good so far this season. His sinker has also been problematic, with right-handers hitting .670 with a 1.000 slugging percentage.

Jansen secured the save against the Reds on Wednesday by allowing one unearned run on zero hits during the ninth inning. He struck out one and did not issue a walk.

Jansen needed only eight pitches to work through the frame, but a pair of errors allowed Yasiel Puig to reach base, steal second and eventually score on a sacrifice fly. The 31-year-old allowed earned runs in each of his last two appearances, though neither were save opportunities. The veteran right-hander has converted all five save chances this season and has a 2.16 ERA, 0.84 WHIP and 11:2 K:BB across 8.1 innings.

Hicks allowed just one walk and struck out a batter in his fourth save of the year during a 6-3 victory against the Brewers on Wednesday.

The 22-year-old has yielded a walk in four of his last five appearances, but none of them have come around to score. Hicks is also 4-for-4 in save opportunities since blowing a game against the Brewers on March 31. In addition to four saves, Hicks has a 2.25 ERA, 1.00 WHIP and nine strikeouts in eight frames this year.

Neris recorded two strikeouts and allowed one hit across 0.2 innings during a save against the Mets on Wednesday.

Things got pretty hairy for Neris, who came on during the middle of the ninth. After his first strikeout, Neris allowed an RBI-single and then hit a batter to reload the bases, but he struck out the next batter to preserve the victory. Neris is 2-for-2 in save opportunities with a 2.57 ERA, 0.86 WHIP and 10 strikeouts in seven innings this season.

Edwards was placed on the minor-league injured list Wednesday with an abrasion on his right hand, Mark Gonzales of the Chicago Tribune reports.

It remains unclear how Edwards sustained the scrape on his pitching hand, but he'll take at least a week to recover on the 7-day IL. The 27-year-old appeared in three games after his demotion to Triple-A Iowa, allowing one run on two hits and a walk while striking out three over four innings.

Minter's path to save chances is now clear for the rest of the season after Arodys Vizcaino underwent season-ending shoulder surgery Wednesday.

Minter appears to be the unquestioned closer with Vizcaino out of the picture, as he's the only other Brave to record a save this season. It's far from guaranteed that he keeps the job all year, however, as he's struggled to a 9.64 ERA and a 5:4 K:BB in 4.2 innings so far this year after starting the season on the injured list with a shoulder injury of his own. He was quite effective in his first two seasons, posting a 3.18 ERA, a 29.7 percent strikeout rate and a 7.5 percent walk rate.

Burdi is available out of the bullpen Wednesday against the Tigers, John Perrotto of DKPittsburghSports.com reports.

Burdi was unavailable Tuesday due to rest purposes, but he should assume his normal role out of the bullpen for Wednesday's series finale. Through eight appearances this season, the right-hander owns a 4.05 ERA, 1.05 WHIP and 13:1 K:BB in 6.2 innings.