The Atlanta Braves didn’t send a particularly imposing group of players to Sarasota to face off against the Baltimore Orioles but that didn’t matter too much in the end. The first two hurlers for the Braves helped make sure that the Orioles were unable to set off too many fireworks at their own spring training ballpark as they kept a strong Baltimore lineup quiet over four innings of clean work.
Despite the fact that the Orioles were putting to a pretty strong lineup for this one, both Garrett Baumann and José Suarez combined to make sure that Baltimore’s group of regulars largely remained quiet in this one. Baumann pitched two innings and struck out a batter while retiring the O’s six-up-and-six-down. Drake Baldwin was already pretty impressed with Baumann before the game had even started, per this post from Atlanta Journal-Constitution Braves beat writer Chad Bishop.
Rotation hopeful José Suarez then entered the game in the third inning and while he wasn’t perfect during his two innings of work, he still did enough to make sure that the Orioles didn’t make any additions to the run column while he was out there. Suarez did walk two batters but he also struck out three Orioles hitters and came away from his two innings of work without giving up any runs, either. One of those strikeouts came at the expense of Pete Alonso, which is no small feat considering that Alonso already has two homers to his name here in the early goings of spring training.
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Fortunes did change a bit for the pitching staff once those two left the game. Hunter Stratton had a rough one as he got tagged for two hits and three runs — two of those runs came off of an RBI double from Luis Vázquez and the third run was walked in by Elison Joseph after Stratton exited the game. This certainly qualified for a rough outing for Stratton.
Late-game rough outings aside, the first two pitchers for the Braves were in pretty solid form this afternoon and it was especially encouraging to see Baumann and Suarez accomplish what they did against a lineup that is very close to what could feasibly be Baltimore’s Opening Day lineup.
Meanwhile at the plate, a mix of both new and old faces did a lot of the damage for the Braves in this one. Both Eli White and Dominic Smith delivered RBI knocks in the third inning in order to put Atlanta ahead and that was part of what was a very good day at the plate for Smith. Smith ended up racking up two hits and three appearances on-base in this one and he came around to score once as well. He was also pretty reliable with the glove as well, so this was a solid day from an all-around standpoint for a guy who’s trying to make the Opening Day roster any way he can. Eli White also delivered a pair of hits as he’s looking to fortify his hold on a bench spot for the Braves.
Once the Orioles subbed out most of their starters in the sixth inning, that was when the dam broke offensively for the Braves. Atlanta ended up scoring eight runs in this frame — it started with Nacho Alvarez Jr. delivering a go-ahead double off of Enoli Paredes and it finished with former Orioles infielder Jorge Mateo crushing a grand slam in order to break the game wide open. The only real blemish during this frame was that Chadwick Tromp got hit by a pitch and exited the game as a precaution. Injuries are always the absolute last thing you want to see at any given point but especially during spring training and even more especially when we’re dealing with a hit to the helmet.
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The Orioles found themselves in a bases-loaded, one-out situation but Jim Jarvis made a great play to pick up the second out and then a strikeout ended the threat right there. As a non-roster invitee, Jarvis figures to be a long shot to break camp on the Opening Day roster but defense like that could turn the right heads.
The Braves ended up closing out the Grapefruit League win after all — even if this was supposed to be Spencer Strider’s turn to start. There doesn’t appear to be anything wrong but the radio crew did mention that he got most of his work done on the back fields today, so hopefully that was a productive session for him. He’s currently scheduled to start on Saturday (that’s coming from the radio crew as well), so there’s that.
Meanwhile, all eyes will be on Reynaldo López tomorrow at CoolToday Park in North Port as the Braves will take on the Tigers with first pitch scheduled for 1:05 p.m. ET. Here’s hoping for a performance that looks more like what we saw from Garrett Baumann and José Suarez today rather than the concerningly-diminished results that the Braves were getting from López during last season’s spring training.
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