Spencer Strider is frustrated but also vows to learn from bad start against Pirates

Despite the eye-popping strikeout numbers, Spencer Strider's not immune to bad outings.

Exactly one year ago, Strider struggled against the New York Mets, not making it out of the third inning after six hits and four runs were scored on him, with two walks and five strikeouts. Atlanta went on to lose that game in New York, 5-2.

But yesterday was different, according to Spencer. “I think it is inevitable to have bad games,” Strider said to reporters after the game. “But this was a [new] level of bad that can happen.”

He was breezing through the first two innings, taking care of six of the seven batters he faced, before the disastrous third inning saw six runs ultimately score, all with two outs.

But Strider's not chalking it up to a bad game - he's promising to take something away from this to become a better pitcher.

“You need to learn from it,” Strider said. “If you try to justify it by saying it’s just one of those games, then I think you can rob yourself of the opportunity to do that. Ideally, I don’t want to have any of these games. To do that, you’ve got to learn from it.”

Strider walked three of the final five batter he faced in the 3rd inning before being removed for Michael Tonkin, throwing more pitches (39) in the 3rd inning than he did in the first two (24) combined.

So what went wrong?

Brian Snitker said it was just soft contact to begin the inning, some bad luck from the young Braves righthander. “It wasn’t like they were rocketing balls all over the place against him,” Snitker said. “He just couldn’t put them away.”

And then Strider walked both Jack Suwinski and Edny Rodriguez back to back, and that's solely on him, he acknowledged.

“I didn't attack guys the way I wanted to and they were on the fastball,” Strider said. “It felt like a little bit of a concession to try to blow fastballs by them, when that's what they're looking for. But I’ve got to be able to execute offspeed, if that's the case. Or, we just have to accept the result and go right back at guys. I didn't do either, and consequently, we lost the game.”

Strider had only issued six walks in his past six starts combined, so this three walk outing is definitely an outlier. It's also the first time in his 43 career starts that he didn't get at least four strikeouts.

Strider acknowledges that he hasn't been as sharp this year as last. “I think I've had a lot of bad starts,” Strider said. “I've had some good starts turn into bad starts. Right now, when I sit back and look at the way I’ve pitched this year, it's frustrating.”

He had just four starts last season with four or more runs - Strider's done that in three of his five since coming out of the All-Star Break, with an ERA of 5.86 in the five starts.

Right now there's a lot of questions about the reliability of Atlanta's rotation, and offense.

Let's see if the Braves have some answers.

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