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KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- Kris Medlen is perfectly happy throwing crisp, pinpoint 89-mph fastballs, especially if the alternative is to throw 100-mph heat while living on the edge. That would be the life of Braves closer Craig Kimbrel. Both of them did their duty on Tuesday night in Atlantas first visit to Kansas City. Medlen outpitched the Royals Ervin Santana to position himself for the win, and Kimbrel survived a shaky ninth to preserve a 4-3 victory in the opener of their two-game series. "You know how stressful it is trying to locate 89 every pitch?" Medlen deadpanned. "Its not very fun, but its a tough skill to do. Its why Im hanging around." Why hes excelling, too. Medlen (5-7) improved to 4-1 in June. The victory wasnt without drama once he left the game, though. Jordan Walden had to pitch around a leadoff walk to get out of the eighth inning, and Kimbrel got into the same trouble in the ninth. But he did one worse, allowing a single to David Lough and letting him swipe second base to put the go-ahead run in scoring position with nobody out. Kimbrel recovered to strike out Elliot Johnson and Jarrod Dyson, and then intentionally walked Alex Gordon to load the bases for Alcides Escobar. He flied out to right on the first pitch he saw to end the game, giving Kimbrel his 11th straight save and 22nd of the season. "Whenever you walk the leadoff batter in a one-run ballgame," he said, "it puts you in a sticky situation, but we were able to work out of it." Jason Heyward drove in a pair of runs with a double in the fifth, and then broke a seventh-inning tie with his solo shot off Tim Collins (2-2). It was his sixth homer of the season. Eric Hosmer hit a two-run homer in the fifth for the Royals. "We had a lot of opportunities," Johnson said. "We didnt make the most of them." In a curious twist to interleague play, the Royals had played 142 games against NL teams at Kauffman Stadium without a visit by Atlanta. If not for last years All-Star Game at the K, longtime Braves third baseman Chipper Jones would have retired having never played in the park. Their debut wound up being dominated by pitching. The Royals scratched out their first run off Medlen in the first when Alex Gordon reached on a single, took second on an error and went to third on a sacrifice bunt. But he was caught in a rundown on a grounder by Hosmer, who reached second before Gordon was tagged out. Hosmer scored on Billy Butlers ensuing single. That was all the Royals would muster off Medlen until Escobar managed a two-out single in the fifth. The resurgent Hosmer followed with his tying two-run shot over the right-field wall, his fourth home run of the season but third in 10 games. It proved to be timely, too, coming just after the Braves pulled ahead. Ervin Santana had struck out five through the first three innings, but began running into trouble the second time through the Braves power-packed lineup. But it wasnt home runs that gave them the lead, but a series of singles and doubles. Chris Johnson led off the fifth with a double, and Andrelton Simmons put runners on the corners with his base hit. Jordan Schafer tied the game 1-all on his double, and Heywards double down the right-field line gave the Braves a 3-1 lead. "I felt very good the whole game," Santana said. "I just missed a couple of pitches, and they made good adjustments on them." Heyward didnt hit his double particularly hard. The homer off Collins was crushed. Heyward greeted a 0-2 pitch from the Royals diminutive left-hander with a ferocious swing, sending the ball soaring over the wall in right field and giving the Braves a 4-3 lead. "I was just looking for a pitch in the zone to hit," he said. "Looking for a pitch in the zone to hit right there and try not to miss it. Put a good swing on it." A good enough swing to give Kimbrel a chance to create some ninth-inning drama. "Its not the way you draw it up," Braves manager Fredi Gonzalez said of the living-on-the-edge save, "but well take it." Notes: The Braves began the day with 96 homers, tied with Colorado for first in the National League. Theyre now 41-9 when they hit a homer and 4-23 when they do not. ... Braves OF Justin Upton was the DH after missing two games with a sore right hand. ... The Royals recalled LHP Will Smith and optioned RHP Kelvin Herrera to Triple-A Omaha. ... LHP Mike Minor pitches for the Braves on Wednesday night. RHP Luis Mendoza goes for the Royals on Wednesday night. Bob Uecker Braves Jersey . The judges scored it 48-47, 48-47, 49-46 for Jones (19-1). It was the champions closest call. Despite the loss, it was a remarkable show by the confident Swedish challenger, who had the best of the early rounds and then hung on in the fourth and fifth. John Smoltz Braves Jersey . Canada is now down to its 22-player limit, although but players wont be registered until Christmas Day. Changes could still be made as a result of a suspension or injury. http://www.baseballbravesproshop.com/hank-aaron-braves-jersey/ .C. -- Glenn Howard needed an extra end to move into the Masters Grand Slam of Curling final. Orlando Cepeda Jersey . The Cleveland Indians, Tampa Bay Rays, and Texas Rangers all won on Sunday meaning the Rangers will host the Rays in a play-in game on Monday. Atlanta Braves Jerseys . Bradwell was scheduled to become a free agent Tuesday. Born and raised in Toronto, Bradwell is entering his sixth CFL season, with all six played for his hometown Argonauts. RIO DE JANEIRO -- South Koreas chance at an Olympic soccer medal gone, forward Son Heung-min dropped to his knees, put his forehead on the grass and wept.Anguish over the end of a chance at Olympic glory? Without doubt.But with the loss to Honduras, Son and his teammates had also missed out on what has been a powerful added incentive since the days when South Korea was a military dictatorship: Men who step onto the medal podium are exempted from the approximately two years of military service that nearly all young, able bodied South Korean men, from pop stars to lawmakers sons, have to perform in the face of North Korean threats of war.I couldnt stop crying because I was so sorry for letting my teammates down, said Son, 24, who plays with the English Premier League club Tottenham and who acknowledged ahead of the game that a military exemption was on his mind. I couldnt even look at their faces.Since the early 1970s, South Korean officials have linked the exemptions to medals, an attempt originally by military strongmen to associate Olympic achievement with national pride and regime loyalty. But there are now growing calls to scrap what had once been regarded as a deserved perk for heroic athletic accomplishment.Theres widespread resentment over mandatory military service in general amid a terrible job market and the failure of South Koreas military to eliminate bullying and abuse in the barracks. And full-time athletes already get unfair special treatment, critics believe, even when they dont win medals. Athletes, for instance, many of whom are rich and famous, can spend their mandatory service playing for military- or police-run sports teams.Regular South Koreans, meanwhile, often see their lives thrown into turmoil in their youths because they have to interrupt their educations or careers, a major disadvantage in South Koreas ultra-competitive society. The discontent about preferential treatment has been bubbling to the surface for some time.For instance, even amid the excitement in South Korea over the country winning its first-ever Olympic soccer medal, at the London Games, there were bitter jokes about reserve defender Kim Ki-hee, who, after failing to log a single minute in previous matches, qualified for military exemption by playing the last five minutes of the bronze medal match against Japan.The taxes we pay are already spent on trainingg these athletes, and its strange that we additionally reward them with military exemptions when they actually do well, said Kim Min-seok, 38, an office worker in Seoul.dddddddddddd We should overcome and change this nationalistic approach to sports and the system for developing elite athletes, not further promote it.Until the 1980s, South Korea compensated performers from a large number of competitions, including world championships and even the World University Games. Since then, the exemptions have been narrowed to winners of Olympic medals and Asian Game golds.But there are still exceptions.Laws were temporarily changed to grant exemptions to South Koreas national mens soccer team, which finished a surprising fourth in the 2002 World Cup, and to national baseball team players who finished third in the 2006 World Baseball Classic.More than 80 male athletes are currently being exempted from military service, save for four weeks of military training, according to South Koreas Military Manpower Administration.Seung Yun Lee, a professor at Seouls Konkuk University, said South Korea should recognize changing public sentiments and declining Olympic popularity and shift its focus from grooming a small number of elite athletes to strengthening sports facilities and programs for regular people.Ha Taekwon, a former South Korean Olympic badminton champion, defends military exemptions for young Olympic medalists who, unlike others, only have a small window of prime performance.Because Olympic medal winners also receive lifelong government payments of up to 1 million won ($900) a month, military exemptions mean much more to athletes in less popular sports than they do to highly compensated soccer and baseball players, for instance, Ha said.It was the biggest thing going through my mind, Ha said of the possibility of a military exemption in the lead-up to his bronze medal win in badminton doubles at the 2000 Olympics in Sydney.After the pressure (of military service) was lifted, I found myself playing more loosely and aggressively, said Ha, who won a doubles gold at the 2004 Athens Games.---Kim reported from Seoul.---Follow Foster Klug at www.twitter.com/apklug . His work can be found at http://bigstory.ap.org/content/foster-klug . ' ' '