Mike Gonzalez pitched in four of the five games in the Braves' first two series on their current eight-game road trip, and that's good news beyond Gonzalez's performances: one hit, one walk, three strikeouts in four innings overall, dropping his ERA from 4.66 to 3.29.
Of equal significance to Gonzalez's performance, however, is the fact that these consecutive appearances indicate he is fully recovered from his 2007 Tommy John surgery. Gonzalez made an unusually speedy recovery from that, undergoing the procedure on May 31 and returning on June 18 last season. In spring training, Gonzalez was still getting used to the sensation of having a healthy elbow; he didn't quite know how hard he could throw or what part of the rubber to stand on now that he didn't have to compensate for pain. After that, he had to build his arm strength and resilience, enough so he could make consecutive starts.
In the meantime, pitchers Peter Moylan and Rafael Soriano were also recovering from surgeries; Moylan made an even speedier recovery from 2008 "Tommy John" and Soriano from his 2008 ulnar nerve transposition surgery.
While the two right-handers were out, there was more pressure on Gonzalez to make more and longer appearances, and sometimes there was a meltdown. Actually, his May 5 outing against the Mets in Atlanta qualifies in that category: two hits, two runs (one earned) while facing only four hitters.
This is the way it's supposed to work: Moylan in the seventh, Soriano in the eight, Gonzalez in the ninth.
On second thought, the way it's really supposed to work is that the starting pitcher goes eight innings, seven at the least, but that isn't happening.
On Sunday in Philadelphia, manager Bobby Cox had the luxury of flipping his relievers, bringing Gonzalez in for the eighth inning to face three left-handed hitters and using Soriano to close it out against right-handed hitters in the ninth.
BRAVES 8, METS 3: RHP Derek Lowe and LHP Johan Santana did what they're supposed to do, going 6 2/3 and 6 1/3 innings respectively. But the Braves struck when Santana came out of the game, scoring four runs to break a 1-1 tie.
