Maholm cruises through spring debut

LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. -- Paul Maholm breezed through his Grapefruit League season debut without the temptation to tax his arm by throwing his curveball or slider. The Braves veteran left-hander faced the minimum while tossing two scoreless innings in Saturday's 8-3 loss to the Yankees at Champion Stadium.

"The goal going into it was no breaking balls," Maholm said. "I was just going to throw my sinker, changeup and cutter. We stuck with it. I told Christian [Bethancourt] if we got in trouble, we might need to rethink our game plan."

Maholm got four of the six batters he faced to hit the ball on the ground. After Robinson Cano reached via Freddie Freeman's error in the first inning, Maholm used his cutter to get Mark Teixeira to ground into an inning-ending double play.

Maholm threw 12 of his 22 pitches for strikes. He will be scheduled to pitch three innings Thursday against the Phillies in Clearwater.