What more can you ask for? A nice sunny day in CoolToday Park, a solid pitching performance from the Atlanta Braves’ two aces, and oh yeah…an appearance from Chipper Jones and Dale Murphy to speak with the team’s hitters before today’s game.
In an interview with Jones from MLB Braves insider Mark Bowman, he explained how he wanted to make the discussion more interactive for the players when discussing strategies and answering questions about the approaches they took during their playing days.
“It’s one thing for us to stand up and give our testimony, but we don’t actually talk about what the players want to hear,” Jones remarked in the interview.
He also explained that the main idea was to adopt a universal approach when taking pitches and to always have a plan set up before they go up to bat.
A great way to start the day before taking on the Blue Jays.
Starting with pitching, Chris Sale went through three innings, giving up five hits and one earned run before retiring his outing with two strikeouts and tagging in Spencer Strider (2.1 IP/ 2 ER/ 2 H/ 1 BB/ 4 K) in the top of the fourth.
Making his presence known to start with a 1-2-3 inning once he entered, fans were impressed with Strider’s 95-96 mph ranged fastball and 41.7% whiff rated slider that appeared to reach its target consistently.
Though giving up a two-run double in the fifth from Blue Jays’ Addison Barger, the “stuff” was there and gained talk amongst Braves Country to encourage a height in their expectations on what’s to come from the ace.
Getting relieved and then returning shortly after in the sixth, he reached 48 pitches before getting relieved by Blyne Enlow.
Moving over to offense, a sac-fly from Austin Riley first put the Braves on the board to tie (1-1) with their opponent. Also noting the two-run homer (his first of the spring) from Dominic Smith to bring Eli White in and take the lead (3-1) early in the game.
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It wasn’t until the bottom of the sixth that the team would see the lead again after an RBI double from
Mauricio Andre Dubón and, soon after, a two-run single from Drake Baldwin (6-3).
Minor league outfielder Tristin English would later go on to extend their lead with a three-run double to secure the win (9-5).
Tomorrow, we’ll be seeing Reynaldo López return as he takes on the Minnesota Twins in Fort Myers.
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