Various reports said Tommy Hanson was not too excited about having to make a rehab start from Atlanta in Gwinnett Sunday night. Well, Hanson made the most of it against the Louisville Bats. Hanson was stellar and the Braves used a big fourth inning to beat the Bats 5-2 Sunday night.
Hanson, who was making what is supposed to be his only rehab start from Atlanta, went five shutout innings for the Braves giving up just three hits and two walks while striking out five.
Gwinnett (55-68) got all of their runs in the fourth off of Bats starter, and former Brave, Todd Redmond (8-9). Josh Kroeger walked to lead off the inning and Ernesto Mejia followed him with a two-run home run to dead center. It was Mejia’s 24th home run of the season. Two batters later, Terry Tiffee singled and scored on Rusty Ryl’s first home run of the season to make it 4-0. Redmond then allowed a two-out solo home run to Brian Friday to cap the scoring.
Felix Perez’s two-run single in the eighth gave the Bats (48-75) their only runs of the night. Perez, who went 2-for-4 Sunday, has now hit safely in 40 of his last 54 games. During that stretch, Perez is hitting .330 and has his batting average up to .292 for the season.
Neftali Soto went 0-for-4 halting his hitting streak at nine games.
The teams wrap up their season series Monday night. With a win, the Bats will take the season series from Gwinnett 5-3. Pedro Villarreal (3-9, 4.12 ERA) will be on the mound for the Bats against Gwinnett’s Yohan Flande (6-8, 4.02 ERA). First pitch for Monday’s affair is set for 7:05 p.m.
