"If anybody needed a little gust of wind to lift his fly ball over the fence, not to mention his spirits, it was Nate McLouth.

The Braves' leadoff hitter has been scuffling to the tune of 2-for-38 this spring. So when the Gulf breezes in Bradenton helped his opposite-field shot off Charlie Morton carry the left field fence in the first inning Thursday, so be it.

"Obviously it was a little wind-aided, but I don't care," said McLouth, who went 1-for-4. "It felt good."

McLouth had spent two of the previous four days getting extra at-bats in Braves' minor league games. When asked if his solo shot in the first inning Thursday was confirmation of what he's been working on, McLouth said, "No, just results."

Some positive reinforcement of any kind couldn't hurt, especially against the team that traded him last year to the Braves. He also got to just breathe a small sigh of relief.

"Everybody says spring training numbers don't matter," said McLouth, who's still hitting only .071 (3-for-42) with 15 strikeouts. "In the grand scheme of things, they don't. But they do to an extent, and whether it's spring training, high school, Little League, big leagues, regular season, it doesn't matter. You still want to swing the bat well. And not doing that, it's tough to start out the season.""