WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. -- Mike Foltynewicz, recently announced as the Braves' fifth starter, continued an impressive Grapefruit League season on Tuesday. Stretched out to 76 pitches (48 strikes) against the Nationals at The Ballpark of the Palm Beaches, Foltynewicz went five innings, allowing six hits and one run. He walked one and struck out two in Atlanta's 3-1 loss.
Foltynewicz has not allowed more than one run in any of his five starts this spring, compiling a 2.00 ERA.
"As the game progressed, I felt great," Foltynewicz said. "It was a weird day, a lot of stuff happened. I thought I had a lot more pitches than that. But I got a lot of quick outs today. My curveball wasn't really there. My slider, throwing it a little harder, got some good outs there. But overall, it was a solid day."
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After breezing through a 1-2-3 first inning, Foltynewicz found himself in trouble in the second, giving up a leadoff single and then a double off the glove of right fielder Chase d'Arnaud. The right-hander proceeded to pump up the velocity, touching 96 mph on his fastball and fanning Matt Wieters to escape the inning having yielded just one run on a sacrifice fly.
Foltynewicz worked out of a bases-loaded jam in the fifth by coaxing a double-play grounder from Nats left fielder Jayson Werth.
"The right side of the field got their week's worth of practice today," Foltynewicz said. "I'm learning how to pitch through [jams] right now in the spring. Every single start has been runners on base, and I've had to get out of jams."
Foltynewicz, a 2010 first-round Draft pick of the Astros, has fought through calf and elbow injuries to work his way into the Braves' rotation.
"I've come a long way, worked my butt off since last year," he said. "I'm just happy I'm healthy and can come into spring and show them what I've got, instead of playing catchup last year. But now I'm just healthy, strong, I was aggressive this whole Spring Training getting guys out.
"Hard work pays off. I'm very honored [to be in the rotation] and don't look back and just keep pounding the zone."
Foltynewicz came to the Braves in a January 2015 trade that sent Evan Gattis to the Astros. In two seasons with Atlanta, he is 13-11 with a 4.89 ERA.