Braves’ Historic Start Sets Stage for Ritchie’s MLB Debut

The Atlanta Braves continued their early-season success on Wednesday. They remain the only team in baseball this season to have not lost a series, and a victory on Thursday night would lock in another series win. April has been a good month for the Braves, but this team will be counting on another young arm to get them to another series win.

JR Ritchie, 22, will make his MLB debut against the Washington Nationals. He is the No. 2 prospect in the Braves’ organization, and he has earned every bit of that reputation in Triple-A. Over his five starts this season (27.1 innings pitched), Ritchie is 3-1 with a 0.99 ERA. He has struggled a bit with walks (13), but has struck out 28 batters and allowed just a .167 team batting average for opposing batters.

After his dominant performance in the spring, the hopes will be high for the rookie pitcher, but expectations should remain tempered. Didier Fuentes got hit hard by a solid Nationals lineup on Wednesday. He struck out seven, but allowed seven hits and four earned runs over 3.0 innings of work (74 pitches).

After the performance, Fuentes was sent back down to Triple-A to make room for Ritchie to pitch tonight. And should Ritchie run into similar trouble, Carlos Carrasco will be available in the pen tonight for long relief.

Helping Ritchie, like Fuentes last night, will be a lineup that has been one of the best in baseball. As a team, they lead the majors in hits (234), runs (143), and RBIs (140) through 25 games. They are second in OPS (.837), batting average (.280), and home runs (36). They are third-to-last in strikeouts (181).

In fact, this hot start to the season has put the Braves into the record books. According to OptaSTATS, the Braves are the only team in MLB history to have a plus-50 or better run differential, hit 30 or more home runs, record 200 or more pitching strikeouts, and now blow a single save through the first 25 games of the season.

This unit has taken the pressure off a beleaguered staff all season. The rotation was repeatedly hit with injuries, losing Spencer Schwellenbach, Hurston Waldrep, and Spencer Strider to prolonged IL stints at the start of the year.

The youth have helped mitigate those losses thus far, and Ritchie has the chance to add his name to the pitchers who have risen to the occasion, but the lineup deserves a lot of credit, too.

The Braves have survived early injuries by leaning on youth and an explosive offense. Now, Ritchie becomes the next test of whether Atlanta’s depth can continue turning opportunity into momentum.

Sign up for our free newsletter for the latest news

Add us as a preferred source on Google