SEATTLE – Matt Olson hit his 300th career homer and Drake Baldwin homered in his first career plate appearance as a leadoff man. By the time Austin Riley hit Atlanta’s third home run of the sixth inning and fourth of the night, it seemed like JR Ritchie’s homecoming would be a victorious one.
But Ritchie’s first career start against his hometown team lasted at least a couple of batters too long. The decision to let the rookie hurler continue to walk the tight rope into the sixth inning proved to be a costly one for the Braves in a 5-4 loss to the Mariners on Monday night at T-Mobile Park.
“We were just trying to squeeze a few more outs out of Ritchie because we didn’t have enough in the bullpen tonight,” Braves manager Walt Weiss said. “We were really light. That’s what happens when you come out of a series at Coors Field.”
Weiss is a key reason why the Braves own MLB’s best record (25-11). He has seemingly done nothing but push the right buttons through this season’s first six weeks. But his decision to allow Ritchie to pitch into the sixth became easy to second-guess when the inning began with the 22-year-old issuing his fifth and sixth walks of the night. The consecutive free passes set the stage for Luke Raley to drill a three-run homer into the right-field seats.
“I’ve done it in the past, gotten away with it by pitching out of some jams,” Ritchie said. “Good teams don’t let you get away with that twice. I got away with it in the fifth inning a little bit. Obviously, in the sixth inning, I walked two guys right off the bat. They’re going to make you pay.”
J.P. Crawford’s go-ahead, two-out, two-run homer off Tyler Kinley capped the sixth-inning’s eruption and proved to be the crushing blow for the Braves, who lost for just the fourth time in their past 19 games.
There’s no doubt the lineup is currently limited with Ronald Acuña Jr. two days into what should be a short stint on the 10-day injured list with a strained hamstring. Michael Harris II’s plate appearances have also been limited as he has spent more than a week dealing with a sore quad.
Still, there is plenty of firepower in a lineup that began Monday with Baldwin (tied for MLB lead with 46 hits), Ozzie Albies (also tied for MLB lead in hits), and Olson (easily leads MLB in extra-base hits).
Baldwin got things started in the first with a leadoff homer – his ninth of the season. Albies, Olson and Riley all homered off Mariners starter Logan Gilbert in the sixth to give Atlanta a 4-0 lead. These additional runs may have given Weiss more comfort to stick with Ritchie, who kept the Mariners scoreless through the first five innings, despite allowing eight of 21 batters faced to reach safely.
With a full allotment of relievers available, Weiss may have limited Ritchie’s third career start to the 81 pitches he threw in the first five innings. But Martin Pérez, Dylan Lee and Didier Fuentes weren’t available out of the bullpen after a taxing series at Coors Field. Reynaldo López could have been used, but this would have been his first back-to-back appearance since moving from the rotation to the bullpen.
So, the available relievers essentially consisted of Kinley, Carlos Carrasco, Aaron Bummer and closer Robert Suarez. Kinley and Suarez are the only members of this group that qualify as high-leverage options.
So, having two quality options to cover four innings influenced Weiss’ decision to stick with Ritchie, who threw just 47 of his 93 pitches for strikes.
Adding to the postgame concern was Weiss's revelation that Pérez may be needed to start one of the next few days. That’s fine considering he has a 2.14 ERA in four starts this year, as he played a big role in Atlanta’s rotation to start the season. He could be deemed a better rotation option than Grant Holmes, who has shown he can be successful as a reliever. But needless to say, the Braves can’t afford to lose Holmes or any other potential starter.
Ritchie regularly pitched around trouble during last week’s start against the Tigers. The Bainbridge Island native did so again through the first five innings of this game at the stadium where he attended countless games growing up. But in the end, he seemed to give too much to some of his hometown team’s hitters.
“The free passes usually come back to hurt you, especially just to start the inning, like he did there with a couple of them,” Weiss said. “But the kid has shown the stuff and the moxie to be a really good starter in this league.”