Nick Markakis made his spring debut Monday for the Atlanta Braves, and he helped ignite the Braves to a 14-10 victory over the Houston Astros.

 

Markakis is coming back from offseason neck surgery for a herniated disk, and there was some concern among Braves fans as to how he would play after the surgery.

 

It’s still too early to make a call on Markakis, but his 2-for-3 performance in the Braves victory looked promising.

 

In his second at-bat, Markakis hammered a double into right-center that made it look like he was in mid-season form.

 

The thing is, Markakis wasn’t even cleared to run bases until three weeks ago, and before yesterday, he hadn’t seen one live pitch all spring training.

 

It could still be a long season for Braves fans, but if Markakis, Freddie Freeman, Andrelton Simmons, Julio Teheran and Craig Kimbrel can turn in All-Star caliber performances Atlanta could surprise some people this season.