Horacio The Magnificent

That headline is right up there with "Cox Publicly Trashes Players" and "Francoeur Walks Twice" in terms of likelihood -- in other words, not bloody likely. But there you have it -- in his first start since a lengthy DL stint, Ramirez shut down the Cubs over seven innings, allowing a first-inning run on a sac fly and nothing thereafter.

The story, though, was the breadth of his performance. First, and most importantly, no walks. He also chipped in a single, scoring from first on a double by Giles, and threw in a perfect sac bunt for good measure. Horacio's highlight reel for this game, though, will feature a couple of spectacular defensive plays at the first base bag. His gimpy hamstring kept him from running full speed, so Jordan had to wait longer than usual to feed him the ball on a couple of grounders to first, then did him no favors with two erratic tosses. But Horacio made one barehand grab and then one twisting pirouette to keep the feeble Cubbies off the bases. I don't know how much we can expect to get from HoRam, but he deserves any and all kudos today.

Cox looks to be going with a situational closer approach for now, as Remlinger became the fourth Brave reliever to get a save this week (after McBride, Reitsma, and Ray). I think it's the right approach for now, but I do hope Schuerholz is casting about for more help.