Closer Vizcaino dealing with balky shoulder

The Braves know that if they hope to have closer Arodys Vizcaino healthy for the long haul of a season, they’re going to have to be a bit more careful with him than most other teams are with their closers.

“Viz has been put back together a couple of times, so there’s always going to be an awareness of that,” Braves manager Brian Snitker said Saturday, a day after Vizcaino wasn’t available to pitch in a 15-inning loss to the Orioles, leading to a frenzy of social-media crit- icism of Snitker.

Vizcaino received a cor- tisone injection Thursday to alleviate soreness in his shoulder and wasn’t ready to pitch Friday because the medication hadn’t taken full effect.

No one outside the team was aware of that situation, seeing as the Braves didn’t mention it last week or before Friday’s game. So when Vizcaino didn’t enter the game with a 3-1 lead in the ninth, the figurative knives came out on Twitter and elsewhere the rest of the night during a game that lasted nearly 5½ hours.

As for his availability for Saturday’s game against the Orioles, Snitker said less than two hours before the 4:10 p.m. start: “Well, we’ll find out. I mean, everything points to where he’ll be OK today, but until he goes out, runs around and plays catch, we won’t know. But I’m going into the game feeling like he’s going to be all right.”

An hour before the game, Vizcaino played catch, long-tossing in the outfield to test the arm as trainers watched intently. From afar, there appeared no issues.

Vizcaino converted 15 of 17 save opportunities before Saturday and had a 1.82 ERA and .204 opponents’ average in 30 appearances with 33 strikeouts, 12 walks and two homers allowed in 29-2/3 innings. After giving up three runs and four hits over consecutive appearances May 13-15, he converted all eight save opportunities during a span of 10 scoreless appearances before the shoulder issue cropped up following his most-recent appearance June 17.

The medical report on “Viz” is extensive: Tommy John elbow surgery that caused him to miss the entire 2012 season. Season-ending calcium-cleanup procedure on the elbow in May 2013. Half-season suspension for performance-enhancing drugs in 2015. DL stints for shoulder inflammation and a strained oblique in 2016. Games missed for a topical elbow infection in 2016.

It has not been an easy ride with the 27-year-old pitcher, a flamethrower and dominant closer when everything is right, but a cause for occasional headaches trying to adjust and work around his ailments.

That’s led to situations such as the one that occurred Friday, when Vizcaino showed up and said his shoulder was still sore, rendering him unavailable in the view of Snitker and the Braves’ medical staff.

Snitker didn’t know until shortly before Friday’s game that Vizcaino wouldn’t be available. He had rested him last week in two games, and that, plus team days off, gave Vizcaino five days since his last appearance, which the team and the pitcher thought would be enough before Friday’s series opener against the Orioles.