Braves pitching dominates again in win over Twins
Fried pitched 4.2 scoreless innings, allowed just two hits, walked five and struck out three. His ERA lowered to 3.52 in three Grapefruit League games, with eight hits allowed in 7.2 innings, three runs, nine walks and five strikeouts.
The walks are alarming but remember that Fried is tinkering with a new changeup that he is trying to add to his arsenal. Reports Wednesday were his fastball had good zip on it in the game against the Twins.
In the last six games for the Braves, the starting pitchers have allowed just one run on 13 hits in 24.1 innings pitched, with 14 walks and 23 strikeouts. That’s an ERA of 0.37.
Here are the stats of the Braves starting pitchers for spring training:
NAME ERA H-IP R-ER BB-K
Ian Anderson 1.59 5-5.2 1-1 2-6
Felix Hernandez 1.98 13-13.2 3-3 5-14
Sean Newcomb 2.00 8-9.0 2-2 2-11
Kyle Wright 2.16 5-8.1 2-2 2-12
Mike Soroka 3.12 7-8.2 3-3 5-7
Max Fried 3.52 8-7.2 3-3 9-5
Mike Foltynewicz 5.14 6-7.0 4-4 4-10
While a few of the appearances for Anderson and Wright were in relief, the combined ERA of these seven starters is 2.70.
And the bullpen also continues to shine. Wednesday Darren O’Day, Will Smith and Josh Tomlin all had scoreless innings of work. Here are the earned run averages of the six main relievers for the Braves who are expected to start the season on the opening day roster:
Luke Jackson 0.00
Chris Martin 0.00
Mark Melancon 0.00
Darren O’Day 0.00
Will Smith 1.69
Shane Greene 9.53
Obviously, Greene has had a rough couple of weeks, but the other five relievers have allowed only one earned run in 20.1 innings for an ERA of 0.44.
Mike Foltynewicz will make fourth start of the spring Thursday as the Braves take on the Tigers in Lakeland at Joker Marchant Stadium.