In the top of the third inning on Wednesday, with Spencer Strider not pitching like himself, Braves pitching coach Rick Kranitz walked from the dugout to the mound.
“I mean, he came out and asked if I was OK,” Strider said.
(This is the clean version, so make your own assumptions about what Kranitz actually said.)
“I had to answer that myself,” Strider said.
To that point, Strider had struggled. He had allowed two runs in the first inning. He hadn’t looked as dominant or in control as he usually does. Every pitcher – especially a young one – goes through growing pains, but something seemed off.
Kranitz knew it.
As Kranitz – everyone calls him “Kranny” – talked with Strider, the right-hander fidgeted with the baseball. Strider declined to repeat the exact words Kranitz used, but they worked.
“I think that’s what I needed to hear,” Strider said. “That’s the mark of a good coach, is knowing when to really light the fire, and he definitely does.”
Added Braves manager Brian Snitker: “It seemed like the one inning kind of got away from him for a little bit, and I think Kranny’s visit was probably the best visit I’ve ever seen, and kind of got him refocused on what he was doing and and then he finished really, really well and efficient, and throwing the ball again.”
Strider finished having allowed three runs on four hits over five innings. He struck out nine batters while walking two.
Soon after Kranitz’s mound visit, a run scored on a groundout before Strider got out of the third inning.
In his final two frames, he struck out four of the six batters he faced. The Braves eventually defeated the Reds, 5-4.
Among the many things to be respected about Strider: He holds himself to a high standard, and it bothers him when he doesn’t meet it. After a win, he took accountability for his own performance, even if it was unnecessary. He pitched fine. He wasn’t great, wasn’t bad. But he has high expectations for himself.
“The whole thing about baseball is it’s predictive, right? Everybody’s trying to understand what the next thing is gonna be, what are stats gonna look like, what are the trends,” Strider said. “And so you want to feel like you’re in a good spot so that you can have confidence to go out and give the team a chance to win the next time. Even if the result is good, sometimes there are things there that are underlying or even obvious to us that suggest you need to work on some things, you need to get better. I feel like that’ll always be the case, no matter how well you do, but I definitely have some things I want to work on.
“It’s easy to get too caught up in that early in the season, rather than just going out and competing. Spring training is over. These aren’t bullpens (sessions). This is the real real thing. And that’s kind of what Kranny was saying to me, and I think I needed to hear that to go out and find that part of me and just compete, not really worry about anything else.”
Early in this season, Strider’s velocity is a tick down. Last year, he averaged 98.2 mph with his four-seam fastball. He entered Wednesday’s start averaging 97.2 mph on 123 fastballs, then averaged 97.1 mph in his latest outing.
“(Catching coach) Sal (Fasano) and I were talking about it,” he said. “I think some of what I’ve been struggling with is that I’ve been trying to pace myself and worry about going deep into the game and being economical. That’s not what I do. What will allow me to do those things is competing with my strengths, and that’s throwing with full intensity and being fully engaged and aware every pitch, and I haven’t been doing that. So that’s my fault. And fortunately, the team’s picked me up these last two starts, but consequently, I haven’t given my best effort.”
Strider’s 98th and final pitch clocked 99.6 mph. He sat 96-97 mph in his final innings.
And looking at his velocity might be a nitpick. But it’s a basic number that can be easy to understand.
“That’s sort of an external gauge of my intensity, I think, is my velocity,” Strider said. “To see a kind of pick up at the end of the game there was comforting. Just a confirmation that I need to find a bit more competitive edge in me that I haven’t been displaying the last couple starts.”
Eddie Rosario versus Buck Farmer
In the bottom of the eighth, Rosario saw a familiar foe in right-hander Buck Farmer.
Rosario played for Minnesota when Farmer was in Detroit. They have history.
Rosario knows Farmer likes to throw high heat.
“I was kind of ready for it,” Rosario said through interpreter Franco García.
He put a high fastball over the wall for a go-ahead home run.
Including the home run, Rosario is 5-for-12 with two doubles, three RBIs and three walks versus Farmer in his career.
Rosario felt he’d put together good at-bats without much success before the homer.
“The whole team sees the work that he puts in all the time and we all know the quality of player that he is,” Orlando Arcia said through García. “We’ve seen him barrel the ball and the effort that he puts in is always 100%, just the way that he plays the game. I hugged him, I congratulated him and told him that I believe in him and I think he’s gonna show everyone what he’s capable of.”
Marcell Ozuna’s struggles continue
After going 0-for-4 with three strikeouts on Wednesday, Ozuna is 3-for-36 this season. That is a .083 batting average. Two of those hits are homers.
“He squared three balls up (Tuesday),” Snitker said. “He’s just gonna have to keep fighting through it all to try and get where he was. He had a really good spring, but that doesn’t count. This is what counts. I was really encouraged (Tuesday) night by the way the ball’s coming off his bat and his at-bats, but he just gonna have to keep fighting through it.”
Snitker said Ozuna will continue receiving opportunities, especially with Travis d’Arnaud on the seven-day concussion injured list.
Any hesitation in continuing to put Ozuna in the lineup?
“Nah, not really, because I hope he’s just gonna get it going,” Snitker said. “I saw it this spring in glimpses. If he gets it going, he can be a force, so we’ll try and keep working him in there and hopefully he does.”
Credit: Miguel Martinez
Credit: Miguel Martinez
The big hat
If you watch Braves games on television, you may have noticed something funny.
After home runs, Braves players are wearing an oversized hat. It makes their heads look tiny.
Ozzie Albies wore it on Tuesday. Rosario put it on after homering on Wednesday. And so on.
“It looks big on everyone, (so) just imagine what it looks like on Ozzie, how he looks when he hit it out the other night,” Arcia said jokingly.
The story of the oversized hat, according to Arcia: At the Braves Walk, where fans line up to see their favorite players before the home opener, a fan threw the hat to one Braves player. (The Bally Sports broadcast said it was A.J. Minter.) So the Braves began using it for fun.
“It’s fun,” Rosario said. “I like it. I was so happy to hit a homer.”
