Michael Harris II hits a pair of homers as Braves pour on the runs against Orioles in spring

Money Mike makes his first two deposits of spring training.

Despite fielding a lowkey lineup on the road against the Baltimore Orioles, the Atlanta Braves had themselves a field day in terms of plate action today in spring training. Michael Harris II led the way with two big homers as the Braves picked up a loud 13-5 spring training win over the Orioles today.

The first homer that Money Mike sent over the fence was actually one of those wacky moments that is both wild and also not completely crazy since, well, it’s spring training, after all. Harris took the third pitch he saw from Dean Kremer and sent it soaring towards center field. Cedric Mullins met it at the wall and attempted to rob it. Sure enough, I’d estimate from the sound of the crowd that 95% of the people in the ballpark thought that Mullins had pulled off the robbery.

That included Michael Harris II, himself, as he actually turned around and headed back to the dugout once Mullins came down from his jump. As it turned out, Mullins was empty-handed and Harris had to turn around and make his trot towards home plate instead of towards the dugout. Anyways, that made it 3-0 Braves.

Also, not only was Money Mike not done hitting bombs on the day — he wasn’t even done hitting bombs in that inning. The fifth inning ended up being a massive one for Braves hitters, as they proceeded to absolutely wear out new pitcher Logan Rinehart once Kremer was done. Here’s how Atlanta fared while Rinehart was out there:

• Garrett Cooper strikeout
• Patrick Clohisy single
• Luke Williams reaches base via fielder’s choice. Rinehart missed on his throw to Jordan Westburg, so a run scored
• Sandy León hits his third home run of spring training to make it 7-0 Braves
• Charles Leblanc strikeout
• Jordan Westburg boots a grounder, so Stephen Paolini reaches
• Nick Allen single

Then Michael Harris II returned to the plate and it was almost as if he wanted to make up for getting tricked by Cedric Mullins last time out. This time, Harris left absolutly no doubt as to whether or not this ball cleared the fence, as he mashed one off of the scoreboard at Ed Smith Stadium to bring the Braves to ten runs on the day and eight runs in that inning, alone. Garrett Cooper added an RBI double once Rinehart exited in order to make it an 11-0 game once the smoke cleared from the huge fifth inning.

Before this massive inning for the Braves went down, the emerging story of the day was Ian Anderson keeping a pretty strong Orioles lineup quiet for four innings. Anderson retired the O’s in order in the first inning and managed to dance in-and-out of trouble in the second inning. While he walked a pair of batters in the second frame, he was able to strand two Baltimore runners on the corners in order to escape the inning unscathed. The third inning was another smooth one as he sat down the O’s in order once again and then the fourth inning was another clean one where the only blemish was a single.

These were four very solid innings from Ian Anderson on the day and personally, I was thinking that they may have decided to let Anderson be finished for the afternoon after he spent a relatively long time sitting while the Braves were busy bopping Logan Rinehart. However, they chose to send him out there for the fifth and the O’s jumped on him. Gary Sánchez led off the inning with a double and then those ol’ control issues popped up again on Ian Anderson. Ramón Urías and Jackson Holliday both coaxed consecutive walks out of Anderson and the Holliday walk is what ended Anderson’s day.

Aaron Bummer was then given the task of being the fireman in this situation but things didn’t go well to start as he walked Cedric Mullins to put the O’s on the board. Bummer sat down the next three batters in order but in the process, Ryan O’Hearn’s productive out made it an 11-2 game — meaning that both runs ended up going on Ian Anderson’s line for the day. Anderson ended up with four innings pitched, two hits, four walks and two runs allowed with a lone strikeout on the day. This was once again one of those days where we saw what Anderson is capable of — both in a good way and in a concerning way. Either way, I’d still imagine that Anderson has pitched himself into a good position when it comes to making the Opening Day roster as part of the starting pitching rotation.

Ian Anderson wasn’t the only Braves pitcher who was prone to throwing Ball Four on the day. Atlanta ended up with a whopping 12 walks on the day — four from Anderson, one from Aaron Bummer, two from Daysbel Hernández, one from Jake Diekman (and two runs allowed on a homer from Ryan Mountcastle in the seventh inning) and then four more once they were done. Honestly, it’s pretty impressive that they managed to walk that many batters while only giving up six hits and five runs on the day. You have to expect that it’s going to be a little tougher on the road since home teams are more likely to post stronger lineups in spring but I’d imagine that the pitching staff probably heard some constructive criticism about all those walks from the coaching staff, today.

Conversely, this was a pretty big day for some players who have eyes on making the big league roster for Opening Day. Nick Allen put up three hits, with one of those being an RBI knock in that huge fifth inning. Bryan De La Cruz tacked on a hit and two walks as well. Garrett Cooper picked up a pair of hits and Luke Williams walked and scored a run. However, Sandy Léon picked up another three hits (including that aforementioned long ball) and he’s been on a bit of a tear at the plate this spring. With Sean Murphy’s injury keeping him out to start the regular season, Léon’s got as good of a chance as anybody to end up with Atlanta instead of Gwinnett once spring training ends.

So there you have it: A lot of offense to talk about and a pitching performance that was good at best and volatile at worst. That’s spring for you, though! We’ll have another chance to catch the Braves in spring action tomorrow afternoon, as they’ll be taking on the Phillies with MLB Network carrying the game, to boot.