The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Foltynewicz has best start of season; Braves lose in 10
Mike Foltynewicz, who entered the game with an 8.02 ERA, looked like a different pitcher Sunday.
“I felt he looked like the old Folty,” manager Brian Snitker said after the Braves’ 3-2 loss to the Milwaukee Brewers in 10 innings at SunTrust Park.
Foltynewicz made his fifth — and by far his best — start of the season, more closely resembling the pitcher who made the National League All-Star team last year than the pitcher who had allowed 26 hits and 23 runs (19 earned) in 21⅓previous innings this season.
He held the Brewers to three hits and two runs in six innings Sunday, showing improved velocity and inspiring hope among his manager and teammates that he is getting back on track.
“That was a really good outing for him to build on,” Snitker said. “That is as positive as I’ve been about him all spring.”
“It was good to see him get up to 96-97 miles an hour again,” first baseman Freddie Freeman said. “It looked like he was coming after hitters more aggressive.”
Foltynewicz left the game with the Braves trailing 2-1, the runs against him coming on solo home runs by Christian Yelich in the first inning and rookie Keston Kiura in the fifth. The Braves tied the game 2-2 on Freeman’s 200th career home run in the seventh inning, his fourth homer in four days.
The Braves lost the game in the 10th inning when the Brewers’ Ben Gamel hit a 416-foot home run to center field on the first pitch by reliever Wes Parsons, the fifth Atlanta pitcher.
The loss broke Atlanta’s four-game winning streak and completed a 4-2 homestand in which the Braves won two of three games from St. Louis and two of three from Milwaukee. As the team departed for the start of a four-game series in San Francisco beginning tonight, Foltynewicz’s performance was the biggest takeaway from the homestand finale. He attributed his progress to hard work done between starts.
“I made some mechanical adjustments, got my hands into a better position where they need to be,” Foltynewicz said. “All of my pitches were coming up a lot better than they were in the past. … (I was) throwing where I wanted a little more instead of missing bad or throwing something not competitive.”
Foltynewicz last season had 12 quality starts — defined as a performance of six innings or more with three or fewer runs allowed — but Sunday’s was his first such start this season. It trimmed his ERA to a stillugly 6.91.
“You start thinking about a lot of things when you do bad,” Foltynewicz said. “All that mental stuff can catch up to you. You just have to learn to flush all that away and keep working and keep grinding.
“You can think about a lot of stupid, dumb things when you’re on this path (struggling), but I’ve got a great support team -- not only at home but here. These 25 guys and these coaches have been tremendous.”
Foltynewicz batted in the sixth inning, striking out swinging, but then did not return to the mound for the seventh. That was because “he got a little dizzy on the swing,” Snitker said. Foltynewicz attributed the light-headedness to the afternoon heat.
But the Braves saw enough through six innings to look forward to Foltynewicz’s next start. “He was pitching today. He wasn’t just out there with overpowering stuff throwing,” Snitker said. “It was fun to watch.”
Back at third: Austin Riley played his natural position of third base for the first time in the major leagues Sunday.
Riley, who had started in left field in each of the previous four games since the Braves promoted him Wednesday from Triple-A Gwinnett, returned to the infield for the homestand finale against the Brewers at SunTrust Park. Josh Donaldson, the Braves’ regular third baseman, got a day’s rest from the starting lineup.
“Just kind of back to my roots, (to) what I know,” Riley said in the clubhouse before the game. “Excited to get that first start as a major leaguer at third.”
In his first four major league games, Riley has been a sensation, collecting eight hits, including two home runs, through Saturday. He is the sixth Braves player in the past 111 years with at least eight hits in his first four career games, the first since the team moved to Atlanta in 1966. The last Brave with an eight-hits-infour-games start to his career was outfielder Mack Jones with Milwaukee in 1961.