If you were near Truist Park on Saturday night, you likely saw red flashes lighting up the sky.
Those were fireworks the Braves fired off after every strikeout by starting pitcher Spencer Schwellenbach. And the 25-year-old recorded a lot of them.
He struck out a career-high 12 batters in seven innings against the Phillies, as the Braves won 6-1. The victory snapped the club’s skid of three straight losses, which included two where they were shut out by the bullpens of division rivals.
“Everything we tried seemed to be working for him,” catcher Sean Murphy said of Schwellenbach’s performance. “It makes my life easy where I’m not scared to go to any (pitches) because I think he’s executing.”
The Braves scored six runs against the Phillies — their most since plating seven against the Mets on Tuesday — but four of those came after Schwellenbach exited the game. Every pitch he made occurred during a high-leverage situation, and he continued to deliver.
Schwellenbach does not know why he seems to thrive in pressure-filled spots — such as pitching after a team loss, which 12 of his 17 starts came after — but Murphy offered an idea. He said the second-year starter stays composed and does not let momentum affect him.
And the results reflect it. Schwellenbach has a 2.62 ERA in starts after a team loss and completed at least six innings in all but one of them.
“I don’t think those guys realize what that does for the psyche of a team when they’re going out there, and they’re not up-and-down,” Braves manager Brian Snitker said. “Guys feed off pitchers like that, and I think that’s a huge thing. We had the right guy pitching today.”
Schwellenbach went at least six innings for his 10th-straight start — and at least seven for his fourth consecutive start — which is the second-longest active streak in MLB and the most by a Brave since Max Fried made 10 consecutive starts of at least six innings in 2022.
He also currently leads the league in innings pitched, a feat no Braves’ pitcher has accomplished in a full season since Greg Maddux did so in 1994.
The achievements sound All-Star worthy, and his teammates agree.
“I’d love to see them there,” Murphy said. “That’d be awesome.”
Similar to his outing against the Mets on Monday, Schwellenbach did not rely on one pitch to shut down the Phillies. Instead, he utilized his entire arsenal — that consists of six different pitches — to hold the division-leading club to just one run on three hits.
Schwellenbach’s most-frequented pitch was a slider that generated 14 whiffs, and he only threw it 10 more times than his sinker.
“Sometimes you rely on pitches that you don’t expect to rely on,” Schwellenbach said. “Just by how the game’s going and how you know what they’re looking for, how the swings are working. That was kind of how it was tonight.”
Murphy, who called Schwellenbach’s masterful performance, had a grand celebration for his starting pitcher after he left the game in the seventh inning. After a short mound visit from the Phillies, the veteran catcher smashed a hanging slider into the left field stands to put the Braves ahead 6-1. The first-pitch grand slam came off his bat at 114.4 mph.
Murphy said he was not hunting a specific pitch, but instead looked for something he could hit in the air with the bases loaded and one out.
And the result was the Braves’ first grand slam of the season.
“That’s awesome for him because we know the power he has,” Snitker said. “To team him up and have that kind of tandem with (Drake Baldwin), it’s pretty good. I think we’ve got an All-Star out of the sum of the parts right there with what both of (them are) doing.”
Every Brave in the starting lineup reached base, a promising development for a team that ranks 24th out of 30 MLB clubs in runs scored.
They will try to carry the momentum into Sunday with a 1:35 p.m. first pitch against the Phillies. Spencer Strider will take the mound with the Braves, who are 38-44 and seven games out of the National League’s final Wild Card spot, aiming to win the series.
About the Author
Keep Reading
The Latest
Featured
