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Kris Medlen can stop anybody (except former Cardinals non-prospect Donovan Solano)

He'd hit 10 home runs in eight years. Until Tuesday.

Steve Mitchell-US PRESSWIRE - Presswire

Kris Medlen is on one of those career-making streaks right now for the Atlanta Braves. 9-1 in a year spent between the bullpen and the rotation, his ERA's down in the mid-ones, and he's looked it, which is the impressive part. He couldn't pick up the win Tuesday against the Miami Marlins, even though the Braves won again. Who kept him from continuing his nigh-perfect run? Former St. Louis Cardinals suspect Donovan Solano, who hit his first two MLB home runs off the hottest pitcher in baseball.

That is, the 11th and 12th home runs in his 3000-plate-appearance professional baseball career.

If you don't remember who Donovan Solano was with the Cardinals—well, you didn't follow the minor leagues on the internet back in 2004, when a single scouting report about a 16-year-old shortstop on the defunct The Cardinal Nation briefly made him into a next-Edgar-Renteria type among members of the proto-hyperventilating-prospect-geek-fraternity.

By the time he reached professional baseball the next year he was well on his way to chewing up his age-relative-to-league advantage with a series of shockingly punchless seasons. He's had a strikingly successful rookie year in Miami, for a 24-year-old who seemed like a solid bet to never play in the majors, but his career minor league slugging percentage remains .319.

I guess he didn't face Kris Medlen enough, back then.