DRAKE BALDWIN, Braves 3-1

"The young righty threw a lot of pitches in this one, as it took 102 pitches to get through 5.2 innings, but the splitter was working. Waldrep got whiffs on 52% (13 of 25 swings) of his splitters, and he ended up with 9 strikeouts on the evening. The Philadelphia Phillies clearly struggled to figure out what the pitch was doing, and Waldrep looked every part the former first-round pick. He ran into really only a couple of issues."

"The first was a shaky bottom of the third. Nick Castellanos, of the 5.1% walk rate, started off with a walk, and Harrison Bader ended up with a single on what can be described as just "one of those plays, you know". Waldrep then righted the ship a bit by striking out Bryson Stott, but then he got himself in more hot water by allowing a single to center from Trea Turner. This brought up Kyle Schwarber, and I'll admit I had a "here we go" sort of feeling going on. Turns out, I didn't need to as Schwarber struck out, and Bryce Harper grounded out harmlessly."

"The second scored the actual run. It would be ... inaccurate to say the Atlanta Braves starter was "sharp" in this one. He walked 4 batters, and there's a reason it took 102 pitches to not even make it through 6 innings (40 balls). But he was effective, and he was able to keep them off-balance. As I mentioned earlier today, Waldrep has begun throwing a cutter, and it was actually pretty good. When you throw a cutter as a right-handed pitcher to a left-handed batter, the objective is to actually get it just in off the plate on the batter's hands. Otherwise, it's just a pitch breaking toward a hitter, and that's generally bad. Well, he didn't get a cutter in, and Brandon Marsh hit it a long way in the bottom of the 4th."

Hurston Waldrep threw 102 pitches across 5.2 innings, generating nine strikeouts largely due to a highly effective splitter that produced whiffs on 52% of swings. Waldrep struggled with control, issuing four walks and facing trouble in a shaky third inning that included a Castellanos walk, a Harrison Bader single, and a Trea Turner single. Waldrep also mixed in a cutter to keep hitters off-balance, though one cutter failed to bite and Brandon Marsh hit a long home run in the fourth. Drake Baldwin provided redemption for the Braves following the game’s events.

Read at Battery Power