JR Ritchie’s major league debut couldn’t have started much worse.
He gave up a home run on very his first pitch.
From there, though, he certainly looked like he belonged.
The 2022 first-round pick, called up to close out the Braves’ road trip in Washington Thursday afternoon, didn’t just excel in his debut. He set the tone in Atlanta’s 7-2 win over the Nationals, which clinched the team’s fifth straight series win and completed a 6-1 road trip.
Atlanta’s No. 2 prospect bounced back from the challenging
first pitch to get through an efficient seven innings on 89 pitches, allowing two runs on five hits with seven strikeouts and two walks. His seven strikeouts are tied for the third-most by a starter in his debut in franchise history, behind only David Hale (2013), Bob Dresser (1902) and Kenshin Kawakami (2009).
He’s the first pitcher in franchise history to throw seven-plus innings, allow no more than two runs and strike out seven batters in his major league debut.
Ritchie’s two walks came in the final innings. His two runs allowed came on solo homers, a middle-middle fastball to Wood and a changeup below the zone which CJ Abrams still managed to power out.
The debutant got an assist from Washington in the second inning, when the Nats put on an ill-advised delayed steal to run their way out of an inning when it had runners on the corners. From there, Ritchie didn’t face much more traffic, never again allowing multiple baserunners at the same time.
It wound up being quite important that Ritchie settled in so well as Atlanta’s offense was largely held down by Washington starter Cade Cavalli.
The majority of their damage against him came in a four-hit fourth which Matt Olson and Austin Riley started with back-to-back doubles. The pair scored on an Ozzie Albies sacrifice fly and a Michael Harris II RBI single, respectively, to stake Atlanta to a 2-1 lead.
Cavalli finished his first start against the Braves allowing two runs on seven hits with no walks and a career-high 10 strikeouts.
Once the starter was out, though, Atlanta got to Washington’s bullpen. After failing to score with two in scoring position and one out in the six, the Braves broke a 2-2 deadlock with a four-run seventh to take control.
After a leadoff strikeout, Drake Baldwin walked, Olson singled and Riley walked to load the bases. Baldwin gave the Braves the lead when he scored on a wild first pitch from Gus Varland. The next pitch was hit to right by Albies for a two-run single to make it 5-2.
Harris capped the big inning with an RBI double to right-center to cap off a 3-for-4 day at the plate. However, he was removed from the game after the inning with what the Braves called left quad tightness in a brutal bit of timing given the torrid run he’s been on at the plate.
For good measure, Albies added a run in the top of the ninth on a solo homer, his fifth of the season. Albies finished the day 3-for-4 as well with four RBIs and two runs.
The Braves bullpen again protected a lead with minimal stress. Dylan Lee struck out two in a 1-2-3 eighth and Carlos Carrasco, also called up on Thursday, delivered a 1-2-3 ninth in his season debut.
The Braves return home and kick off their second straight weekend series against the Phillies, this time at home, Friday night.
