Good day for pitching, as Chris Sale and AJ Smith-Shawver dominate in split-squad spring Saturday

The Braves’ pitching largely performed well, but the offense was more of a mixed bag on Saturday

In today’s split-squad Spring Training couple of games, the pitcher-catcher pairing of Chris Sale and Drake Baldwin went to Boston’s site to play in the early game, along with a bunch of depth pieces. Sale went a full 6.0 innings with 9 strikeouts and only 1 walk. He did give up 2 solo home runs on 4 hits, but given the strikeouts and walks, that is an outing that Braves fans should be pleased to see in a Spring Training game, against what should be close to Boston’s regular lineup. Elsewhere on the pitching side, Daysbel Hernandez recorded a scoreless inning with a hit and no strikeouts or walks. Dylan Lee pitched a dominant eighth with a walk but 3 strikeouts.

Drake Baldwin had a solid day at the plate in his own right, knocking 2 singles in 5 plate appearances, with 1 strikeout. Bryan De La Cruz had a hit and a strikeout in four plate appearances.

The Braves romped over the Red Sox 7-3, as Nick Allen also recorded a double and 2 singles from the leadoff spot.

On to the second game, with most of the regular bats and AJ Smith-Shawver on the mound. AJ struck out the first two Twins’ batters of the game and touched triple digits with his fastball. He did allow a two out double down the left field line, but got a weak grounder to end the inning clean.

AJ ultimately went 4.0 innings and struck out an eye-popping 8 batters with no walks, as his stuff looked electric. He did allow 2 earned runs on 5 singles and a double, but it was largely soft contact and it was overall a statement outing for AJ, as he looks to make his case to open the season in the rotation.

The offense didn’t do much of note, but Austin Riley hit a double, which is encouraging given his recent hand injury. Michael Harris was also a standout among the regulars, as he laced a line drive on a 102 MPH fastball for one of his two singles on the day.

Back on the pitching side, Raisel Iglesias pitched a quick scoreless inning with a walk and no strikeouts, Hector Neris made his Braves’ debut and worked a scoreless inning of contact outs, and Aaron Bummer allowed two hits but got a filthy strikeout in a scoreless inning, which was very on-brand. Jake Diekman did not do quite as well, allowing two runs on a walk, a double, and a wild pitch, but did at least record a strikeout.

Join us tomorrow at 1:07 PM ET, as the Braves take on the Blue Jays.