Concerns About Braves Schwellenbach Need Not Apply

The Atlanta Braves sophomore arm is showing he can make the adjusts that allow him to succeed in the Major Leagues

Atlanta Braves starting pitcher Spencer Schwellenbach has made his way out of his slump | Dale Zanine-Imagn Images

The Atlanta Braves are finally a .500 team, and Spencer Schwellenbach finding his groove again lined up perfectly to help get them there. He held Washington Nationals bats to two runs on six hits across seven innings of work. One of those runs came on the first pitch of the game he mostly settled in after that.

In his last 13 innings pitched over two starts, Schwellenbach had a 1.38 ERA and 0.92 WHIP. It's a lot more in line with what we saw out of him to start the season.

Before, he was able to ride on being a young talent with good stuff. Now, he's an established pitched in the Majors that opponent's look out for.

"They're aware of him. Those guys talk," Braves manager Brian Snitker said. "I know our guys. When we run into players from other teams, they like to talk about him because it's kind of a rough ride for them. So, they're aware of him, and he's going to have to continue to adjust as he has."

How he's been able to readjust and come back from a rough month or so says more about him as a starting pitcher than the strong run he had to start his career. To survive in this league, it's all about adjustments.

A notable adjustment, according to Baseball Savant, he's using more of his splitter. It went from being his fifth-most-used pitch to his third-most-used pitch. It's essentially replaced the cutter as his third pitch because it's that much more effective. Hitters have a .114 average against the splitter compared to .381 against the cutter.

The starting rotation had been starting find it's footing lately, but it was while Schwellenbach was struggling. This arguably bought him time to figure it out since the Braves were able to go 11-5 in outings by the other four starters since April 18.

With the roation looking now more in sync, they have a chance to push above .500 and stay there.