Braves News: Austin Riley in injury limbo, AJ Minter's struggles continue
Winning their series against the Mets was great, but hopefully it didn't come at the cost of losing Austin Riley for a while.
While the Atlanta Braves dominated the Mets for all but one inning of their series win in New York, not all of the news was great from the series. Yes, Charlie Morton was excellent on Friday and Max Fried was nearly a part of a no-hitter on Saturday, but all eyes are currently on Austin Riley and whether or not his side injury could land him on the injured list.
Riley was forced to leave Sunday's game early with what was termed left side tightness. After the game, Riley said that he had felt the tightness during BP and didn't think anything of it, but he mentioned it to trainers after an awkward swing in the third inning. The Braves removed him from the game "as a precaution" and now we are in full wait-and-see mode.
The good news is that everything currently points to not being a serious injury as Riley did play for a little bit after it acted up during the game. Riley and team officials also all agree that the issue isn't as serious as the oblique injury has sidelined Sean Murphy for nearly two months now. However, the team is going to see how Riley is feeling on Monday and examine him further in Atlanta before making any decisions.
Braves News: AJ Minter's struggles in the late innings continued in walk-off loss to Mets
It wasn't that long ago at all that AJ Minter was one of the Braves' most trusted relievers. He was locking down the best offenses in baseball over multiple innings in key playoff games and on many teams, he would have absolutely been their closer. However, cracks are forming in Minter's armor this year and one was evident when Brandon Nimmo (boy is he annoying) hit a walk-off two-run homer to keep the Braves from sweeping the Mets on Sunday.
Both Joe Jimenez and Raisel Iglesias weren't available on Sunday as Iglesias had pitched the last two games and Jimenez had really labored the night before. Unfortunately, the normally reliable Minter, despite being in a favorable matchup against the lefty Nimmo, got tagged for the game-winning blast in a continuation of his issues with giving up loud contact this year.
Atlanta's bullpen is deep enough to not NEED Minter to be his usually dominant self right now, but the Braves are going to need their best lefty to figure things out before too long. The Braves have high expectations for this season and that means they are going to need every high leverage arm they can get.
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