Daysbel Hernández has a strong first rehab outing for the Atlanta Braves' Triple-A affiliate. He pitched a scoreless inning for the Stripers, allowing no hits or walks while striking out a Norfolk Tides batter.
For those who are curious, he picked up a hold. He, Jesse Chavez and Wander Suero went scoreless in tandem to finish off a winning effort for Triple-A Gwinnett.
The Braves will get a key reliever back in the bullpen soon enough. Hernández has been out since June 4 with right forearm inflammation. With two outs in the top of the eighth inning, he threw a pitch, and something didn't look quite right after. Aaron Bummer came in his place, and we haven't seen him since.
He went on the 15-day injured list June 6, with it being retroactive to June 5. Hernández has a 2.22 ERA in 25 appearances for the Braves this season. He had been thriving in the role of being the setup man in the eighth inning.
Figuring out how to configure the back of the bullpen is going to be a good problem for the Braves to have. Dylan Lee and Raisel Iglesias have pitched very well in Hernández. Iglesias has now pitched eight consecutive scoreless outings, while Lee hasn't allowed a run since before Hernández got injured (May 25).
Snitker could still opt for the initial format of Lee in the seventh, Hernández in the eighth and Iglesias in the ninth. Given that his hope is for Iglesias to get back to being the closer, it would make sense that Hernández would ease back into the setup role in turn. After all, it's worked very well this year.
They could also shuffle around based on matchups. That can't be ruled out entirely.
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