PHILADELPHIA -- Braves manager Brian Snitker started Spencer Strider in Game 3 of the National League Division Series against Philadelphia in the hope he could go four innings. He didn’t make it.
Strider, pitching for the first time since Sept. 18 after suffering and rehabbing a strained oblique, lasted only 2-1/3 innings, during which he allowed five earned runs Friday at Citizens Bank Park. The biggest blow was a 394-foot, three-run homer by Rhys Hoskins that gave the Phillies a 4-0 lead that would stretch to a 9-1 final.
The Braves trail Philadelphia 2-1 in the best-of-five series. Game 4 is scheduled for 2:07 p.m. Saturday.
“Execute and put us in a position to win, and I didn’t do that,” Strider said of the plan for him Friday.
Snitker had reasons to be optimistic about his choice to hand Strider his first postseason start. A Clemson product, Strider was 4-0 with a 1.27 ERA and 34 strikeouts against the Phillies this season. He was 11-5 with a 2.67 ERA with 202 strikeouts for the season and is considered a candidate for Rookie of the Year.
Plus, Snitker said that Strider told him Friday morning that he wanted to go nine innings. He was that confident.
“I say, we put Spencer on this roster thinking that if we didn’t use him Wednesday, that he was going to start this game and do his normal routine,” Snitker said. “We hoped to get four innings out of him. And the way he started out, I thought, man, we’re going to be able to do that.”
Strider did start well. He faced only six batters in the first two innings, striking out three, all swinging. He needed 29 pitches.
Strider then lost the strike zone and some of his velocity.
The right-hander walked Brandon Marsh on four consecutive balls to start the third inning. After striking out Jean Segura, Strider attempted to pick off Marsh at first. It was his first pickoff attempt in the game, and the ball landed in the dirt a few feet in front of Matt Olson, who couldn’t handle the throw as the ball skipped past him and into foul territory. Marsh raced around second and toward third. Austin Riley bobbled the throw at third after it hit off the ground. Had he caught it cleanly, he had a chance to tag out Marsh. Bryson Stott followed with a double to score Marsh.
Phillies manager Rob Thomson said he thought the key to the inning was the at-bat by Stott, who fought Strider through nine pitches. That came after an eight-pitch at-bat by Segura. Thomson said he thought Strider’s stuff “went down a little bit.”
Strider was ordered to intentionally walk Kyle Schwarber, who hit .125 against him before Friday’s game. Hoskins, who didn’t have a hit in nine at-bats against Strider this season, was next and blasted his first pitch, a 93.8-mph four-seam fastball, over the wall in left field. The fastball was Strider’s slowest of the season, according to BaseballSavant.mlb.com. Strider said he didn’t mean to throw the pitch down the middle, but he did.
“Throw it 91 or 101, throw it right down the middle, they usually hit it fine,” Strider said.
J.T. Realmuto followed with a single to left field on an 84-mph slider.
That was it for Strider, who threw 52 pitches, 36 for strikes. It was his shortest outing as a starter this season. The five earned runs were tied for his second-most allowed.
Strider said he didn’t think his layoff affected him.
Hyosub.Shin@ajc.com
Hyosub.Shin@ajc.com
“I felt fine, I just didn’t execute pitches,” Strider said.
Catcher Travis d’Arnaud said he could tell that Strider’s velocity was decreasing.
“Spencer’s got a lot of drive and heart, and I know he wanted the ball in that situation,” d’Arnaud said. “So velocity or not, I still would want him on the mound.”
Snitker made the decision to start Strider over Charlie Morton in part because he thought that the bullpen was ready to handle a longer workload after pitching only three innings in Wednesday’s 3-0 victory. Plus, starting Strider in an important Game 4 may have been too big of a risk for a pitcher who was coming off a layoff and had never pitched in the postseason.
The poor outing was the second in three games for the Braves in the NLDS. Max Fried lasted only 3-1/3 innings in Game 1 on Tuesday. He allowed six runs, four earned.
Strider said he is confident that Morton will pitch well Saturday and even the series.
“Hopefully get back out there and do better,” Strider said.
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