ATLANTA -- Guardians starter Slade Cecconi fired a 3-0 pitch to Matt Olson in the sixth inning on Friday, a four-seam fastball near the top of the strike zone and slightly inside. After Olson connected on the offering, Cecconi craned his neck to watch as it took off and flew beyond the right-field wall at Truist Park.
Cecconi was rolling along for five innings on Friday. His night came to a screeching halt in the sixth frame of the Guardians’ 11-5 loss to the Braves in the opener of a three-game series. Atlanta scored six times in the inning, with four tallies charged to Cecconi -- three via the long ball.
"Slade was sharp the first five, throwing the ball really well, hitting his spots, changing speeds," manager Stephen Vogt said. "It just got away from him there in the sixth."
“It happened quick,” Cecconi said.
Cecconi threw 16 pitches and faced five batters in the sixth. He allowed a solo homer to Ronald Acuña Jr., a single to Drake Baldwin, a two-run homer to Olson and a single to Austin Riley. Cecconi got Mike Yastrzemski to ground out, which marked the end of his outing.
The Guardians’ rotation entered Friday ranked second in the Majors with a 2.67 ERA, and Cecconi appeared on his way toward continuing that strong start against the Braves. He held Atlanta to one (unearned) run on three hits through five innings.
The Braves logged three singles in the third, which included Ronald Acuña Jr.’s RBI base hit that opened the scoring. Acuña’s knock came moments after a passed ball by Guardians catcher Bo Naylor, which had allowed Atlanta to put two runners in scoring position with one out. Cecconi, to his credit, limited the damage.
Cecconi was less fortunate in the sixth, when he paid for falling behind in counts against the heart of the Braves’ order.
“When you're pitching from behind,” Vogt said, “you’ve got to come into the zone, and a lot of times your stuff's not going to play as well -- especially that late in the game. To [the Braves’] credit, they jumped him in the sixth, and we weren't able to recover.”
Acuña led off the sixth and worked a 2-1 count by taking three consecutive Cecconi curveballs. Cecconi came back with a cutter on the inner half for a strike, and then fired a 2-2 curveball inside. Acuña hit it a Statcast-projected 411 feet over the left-field fence with an exit velocity of 104.9 mph for a game-tying solo homer.
Baldwin followed Acuña and hit a 1-0 sinker off the outside corner for a single (108.2 mph exit velocity). Cecconi fell behind Olson 3-0 and came back with a four-seamer, which Olson hit a projected 441 feet over the right-field wall.
Immediately after Olson’s homer, Cecconi also fell behind Riley 3-0. He threw a four-seamer in the zone, and the Braves’ third baseman hit a sharp single to left (109.3 mph exit velocity). That prompted a mound visit by pitching coach Carl Willis.
Cecconi got Yastrzemski to ground out, but the Guardians could have potentially turned a 3-6-3 double play instead. The grounder deflected off first baseman Kyle Manzardo; second baseman Juan Brito recovered the ball to get just the out at first.
Matt Festa took over for Cecconi and got Ozzie Albies to ground out to third baseman José Ramírez. Dominic Smith hit a two-out single, scoring Riley, and Michael Harris II capped off the big inning with a two-run homer.
“[Cecconi] earned that sixth inning, and it happened very quickly,” Vogt said. “We get the ground ball and weren't able to turn the double play. Otherwise, that inning looks very different as well.”
It made sense for Cecconi to take the mound for the sixth inning. His pitch count was only at 69 through five, and the Guardians were opening a stretch of 13 games without an off-day. Perhaps they could have had a mound visit sooner, such as after Baldwin’s single, to slow Atlanta’s momentum. Alternatively, the momentum escalated in a flash.
As much as things came down quick on Friday, Cecconi knows what he can control to help himself in moments like that.
“Understanding that it's an 0-0 count, and I need to be aggressive in those even counts to keep myself in advantage counts,” Cecconi said. “You’ve got to pitch aggressively in the strike zone on the 0-0s and the 0-1s in order to get to the 0-2s, 1-2s, 0-1s.
“Just reminding myself [of] that consistently and just making some better pitches.”