Spencer Schwellenbach had a solid MLB debut Wednesday night lasting 5 innings, giving up three runs on five hits with five strikeouts and one walk with a hit batter. However, the Braves offense and bullpen did him no favors, so Atlanta ended up losing the game 7-2.
Despite the Braves loss, The Morning Shift and former Braves pitcher and now color analyst on Bally Sports South CJ Nitkowski thinks Schwellenbach’s good start should earn him another one and maybe even more.
“I thought everything we saw yesterday was really encouraging with him," Nitkowski said. "He was in the strike zone quite a bit which is what you want to see from young pitchers. I know the one got away the hit by pitch was a little bit of a scary moment yesterday, but he recovered well and luckily Jacob Young was fine.
"But to punch out five and to only walk one in 5 innings in your first big league start and the runs come on one home run on a pitch that wasn’t a bad pitch but a good swing by a good hitter you can live with it and you can certainly see the upside and I have a feeling we’ll probably see some more starts from Spencer Schwellenbach this year.”
Beau Morgan didn’t mince words about the Braves rookie when he talked about what the Braves should do with Spencer moving forward.
“I see no reason to not roll him out every five days right now," Morgan said. "I mean I don’t know what else you think is going to happen."
When it comes to the end of the Braves rotation right now they don’t have much to lose. Max Fried, Chris Sale, and Reynaldo López have all been really good this season, and Charlie Morton has been pretty solid in his own right considering he’s a 40-year old starting pitcher. Maybe the Braves should continue to just let those guys carry the weight right now, give Schwellenbach more starts, see if the rookie can get in a rhythm, and maybe just maybe give the backend of the Braves rotation the stability they’ve been looking for since Spencer Strider went down for the season.