Austin Riley 2020 Season Recap

Here is a look back at the season of Atlanta Braves third baseman Austin Riley

Twenty-three-year-old Austin Riley finished his first full major league season, batting .239 (45-for-188) in 51 games, with a .301 on-base percentage and a .415 slugging percentage…He hit eighth home runs and drove in 27. • Hit eight home runs, reaching the 20-homer and 25-homer milestones of his career. 

Hit his 20th career home run on August 4 off Toronto's Matt Shoemaker, and hit his 25th career homer in Game 2 of a doubleheader on September 4 vs. Washington, off Will Crowe. • For both milestones, was the fourth quickest player by games played in franchise history to reach that total, trailing Wally Berger, Ronald Acuña Jr. and Bob Horner. 

His eight home runs traveled an average of a projected 424 feet, the third farthest in the majors, trailing Marcell Ozuna (429 ft.) and Seattle's Ty France (425 ft.)...France hit just four home runs. • Two went over 450 feet...One was 471 feet, off the Nationals' Will Crowe on September 4, the third longest by a Braves player this season. • The other went 458 feet and caromed off Citi's Field third deck... He hit that one off the Mets' Corey Oswalt on July 26.  

Only one of his homers came on a fastball...Hit .281/.328/.632 (16-for-57) off breaking pitches (sliders and curves)...Last year, hit .195 against these pitches and struck out in 38 of his 86 plate appearances (41.9%).  

Over half (15) of his 27 RBI came with two outs...In those situations, produced a .446 slugging percentage. • In his first 18 games of the season, went 9-for-60 (.150) with four walks, 22 strikeouts and a .517 OPS...In his final 33 games, produced an .808 OPS, hitting .281/.348/.461 (36-for-128) with 12 extra-base hits (6 2B, 1 3B, 5 HR) and 19 RBI. 

Struck out in just 23.8% of his plate appearances, far better than the 36.4% strikeout rate he had last season. • His 32.4% chase rate and 30.1% whiff rate were both considerably lower than the totals he had in 2019 (37.7% chase rate and 38.7% whiff rate). • Scored a single-game career-high five runs on September 9 against the Marlins...Is one of just six Atlanta-era players (since 1966) to score that many runs in a game, joining Adam Duvall and Dansby Swanson, who also did so in that game. • Chipper Jones, twice, Kenny Lofton and Lonnie Smith are the others. 

Riley reached base safely four times in the game (2 H, 2 BB). • On August 30 at Philadelphia, hit a double and a home run in a 10-run second inning...Riley was the first Braves player with multiple extrabase hits in a single inning since Jeff Blauser on June 22, 1997, also at Philadelphia. 

His only triple of the season, and second of his career, broke a 2-2 tie and drove in three on August 31 at Boston...It was Atlanta’s first basesloaded triple since Mallex Smith cleared the bases on May 30, 2016 vs. the Giants.  

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