Some Braves roster hopefuls had uneven-at-best pitching performances in a silly Spring Training loss to the Rays
Braves’ pitching (and defense) has had their Spring Training opponents locked down so far in February and March, but things were a little bumpy today. The game devolved into Spring Training silliness late, but some Atlanta arms probably had worse outings than they were hoping for.
AJ Smith-Shawver got the start, and couldn’t escape the first inning without getting sent for a quick breather. A two-out single, followed by a walk, and another bloop-y single chased him. He returned and was able to fire another inning with fewer dramatics, and then stuck around to strike out Eloy Jimenez for a second time before a comebacker single sent him to the showers for good. Smith-Shawver finished with three strikeouts to a walk, but his mechanics were all over the place and he was clearly struggling to execute despite showcasing pretty good stuff.
After that, it was a hit-or-miss batch of pitching for the Braves. Rolddy Munoz botched a double play ball comebacker. Buck Farmer had kind of a nightmare outing, not even able to finish his inning that featured a walk and a few balls that found grass, with no strikeouts. Anderson Pilar issued leadoff walks in both innings he worked, and didn’t escape the latter.
On the flip side, Enyel De Los Santos struck out the side, Aaron Bummer got his work in with a 1/0 K/BB ratio, and Domingo Gonzalez was able to get out of Pilar’s mess in the eighth but had the Rays walk him off in the ninth without recording an out.
Hitting-wise, the Braves only had a few regulars in this game. Ozzie Albies reached base twice via single and walk, and that was about it for them. Jake Marisnick ran into a homer, and the Braves’ other runs were scored late via a slow roller with a man on third, and then, in the ninth, via a routine grounder from Cody Milligan that somehow ate up first baseman Ricardo Genoves and turned a 4-2 deficit into a 4-4 tie. The Braves actually had a chance to take the lead as Christian Cairo doubled, but neither Curt Casali nor Matthew Batten (a guy who I learned actually has more than a handful of major league PAs, despite me never having heard of him before) could drive Milligan in.
For maximum amusement, the guy who walked the Rays off was Genoves, after his pooching of the roller allowed the game to even get that far in the first place.
The Braves will head home to face the Twins tomorrow, with Chris Sale making his second Spring tune-up start.