LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. -- When Javier Vazquez starts Puerto Rico's World Baseball Classic opener on Saturday, he'll finally have the opportunity to face somebody other than his Braves teammates.

A few hours earlier, Jair Jurrjens will have had the opportunity to face the Yankees and attempt to end his early Spring Training inconsistencies, which have been taken advantage of by the Tigers and 19-year-old phenom Jason Heyward.

Manager Bobby Cox scheduled a Monday morning intrasquad game to give Jurrjens and Vazquez an opportunity to continue strengthening their arms while most of the rest of their Braves teammates took advantage of a day off.

The setting provided Heyward the chance to continue testing his advanced skills against Major League pitchers. The 19-year-old top prospect accounted for three of the four combined hits surrendered by Vazquez and Jurrjens, who solely faced Heyward, Diory Hernandez, Brandon Hicks and Matt Kennelly during their three-inning stints.

Heyward highlighted the day when he directed Jurrjens' misplaced fastball off the scoreboard in left-center field. In the third inning, the left-handed slugger went the opposite way again with a liner that was misplayed by the left fielder and resulted in a double.

"Everybody can hit bombs," Jurrjens said. "That's not a big deal. I'm just not hitting my spots like I want to and that's making me a little bit mad right now. That's my second outing and I need to start improving. I feel like I haven't improved anything yet and that's frustrating."

While this was an intrasquad game during which Minor Leaguers were used as fielders, Jurrjens was visibly upset about his inconsistent control. Much like he did while allowing two earned runs and four hits in two innings against the Tigers last week, he wasn't able to consistently keep his fastball down in the zone.

When he makes his scheduled start against the Yankees in Tampa, Fla., on Saturday, Jurrjens will attempt to slow his delivery and be more aggressive in the strike zone. He says he's physically sound and not feeling any effects from the professional career-high 188 innings that he completed last year.

"I'm really tough on myself," said Jurrjens, who is coming off of a 13-win rookie season. "I know what I need to do, and when I don't do it, I get mad."

Having only surrendered a second-inning single to Heyward, Vazquez had little reason to be mad. But the 33-year-old right-hander, who has made his first two starts of the Spring in intrasquad settings, felt he might have gotten away with some pitches.

"My location wasn't as good as I wanted," Vazquez said. "But I threw my pitches for strikes. The most important thing right now is to get the pitch count up and get the mechanics right."

All pitchers will be on a 70-pitch limit during the first round of the Classic. Courtesy of his work during these two intrasquad games, Vazquez is confident that he's currently strong enough to throw 50-60 pitches without any problems.

Vazquez was scheduled to travel to Fort Myers, Fla., on Monday night to join his Puerto Rican teammates in the pre-Classic minicamp. They will return to San Juan later this week to prepare for their opening game on Saturday evening against Panama.