The Atlanta Braves took on the Twins today at CoolToday Park. Chris Sale made his fifth start of spring training and looked to keep up his high strikeout rate.
Before this start, Sale had seventeen strikeouts in only 11.2 innings pitched with a 1.20 WHIP. Of course, it is a small sample size, but 13.11 strikeouts per nine innings would have placed him second among starters in MLB last year behind only Spencer Strider.
Sale struggled a bit in the first inning giving up back-to-back singles to Carlos Santana and Kyle Farmer with one out. However, he was able to strike out Willi Castro and force a groundout to end the inning with no damage done on the scoreboards.
In the second inning Sale stared off strong with a strikeout but then gave up another single. Followed the single with a strikeout on a full count. Travis d’Arnaud continued his struggles with runners stealing off of him with Manuel Margot swiping second base. The steal did not phase Sale though as he finished off the inning with his third strikeout of the frame.
Sale came back out for the third inning and although he gave up a walk to Santana, was able to gain two more strikeouts. Sale had six strikeouts in only 3.0 innings pitched while walking one and giving up three singles. Sale was replaced by Tyler Matzek in the fourth inning.
Matzek was able to strikeout out Kepler on a full count on a solid frame job by d’Arnaud sandwiched between two flyouts.
Other notable pitching appearances for the Braves included Raisel Iglesias pitching 1.0 inning with one strikeout and no hits or walks, and Joe Jiménez pitching 1.0 inning with one single, zero walks, and two strikeouts.
All-in-all the Braves’ pitching staff held the Twins to zero runs, six singles, two walks, and twelve strikeouts.
On the offensive side of the ball Ozzie Albies started it off nicely with a single that deflected off of a leaping Willi Castro at shortstop. Things looked like they may simmer down when Bailey Ober was able to strikeout Riley and Duvall back to back, but then he walked Matt Olson and Big Bear Ozuna launched a hanging breaking ball over the left center wall for a three-run home run to put the Braves in the lead 3-0.
Fast forward to the third inning (Braves went three-up-three down in the second), and Austin Riley made up for his strikeout with a solo shot off of Ober for his third HR of the spring, extending the Braves’ lead to four. Ober was able to get Duvall to fly out to short right, and he struck out Matt Olson, but not only did the Braves put four runs on him, they also were able to make him pitch fifty-seven pitches in only three innings.
After the third inning for the Braves, the offense went silent. The only other real action that happened was d’Arnaud walked in the fourth inning, Forest Wall doubled in the fifth, and Ambioris Tavarez doubled in the seventh inning. Every other at bat resulted in an out.
In typical Braves fashion, the offense was generated by the long ball.
It will be interesting to see tomorrow who will be getting their last at bats in before the regular season starts, and if Jesse Chavez will make an appearance.
