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Good and bad news out of Charlotte on Sunday...
The good: Tim Anderson drew his first walk of the season. On May 1. His 19th game of the season.
As troubling as that is, it's almost a tradition. Last year, he only drew one walk over his first 24 games, spanning 108 plate appearances. The only real difference is what Anderson's doing around it. He hit .301/.311/.369 at Double-A, as opposed to .235/.244/.271 during this similar stretch at Triple-A.
There are better days ahead if he sticks to the script, as he raised his walk rate every month afterward, reaching a respectable 6.1 percent in August.
The bad: Miguel Gonzalez took a line drive off his face two batters into his start.
He left the game afterward, but under his own power after being attended to on the mound. In fact, he stayed on his feet the whole time. Hopefully that's the sign that it was more of a glancing blow than it appeared, and not that it rung his bell too hard for him to process pain.
Sunday's box scores will appear below shortly.