DENVER -- Spencer Strider had a mixed bag in his season debut Sunday, walking five and striking out six in 3 1/3 innings on the hill in the Braves' 11-6 win over the Rockies at Coors Field.
Strider started the season on the injured list with a left oblique muscle strain. He allowed three earned runs on four hits. The five walks tied a career high, also at Coors Field on June 4, 2022, and it was just the fifth start in his career where he pitched 3 1/3 or fewer innings.
“I’d rather be pitching than hurt, for sure, but I don't want a participation trophy,” Strider said. “I'm here to help the team win games. I'm getting paid a ridiculous amount of money to do it, and if I can't, then that's a problem. So let's find a way to be more effective than I was today. [I’ve] got a lot of work to do.”
Strider struggled in the first two innings, allowing a run on a walk, a steal and a run-scoring single in the first frame. He then loaded the bases with a single and two walks in the second before inducing a bases-loaded fly ball to right from Hunter Goodman to end the inning. He threw 27 pitches in the first inning and 28 in the second.
“Stuff was good, didn't throw strikes -- it was that simple,” Strider said, explaining that he relied more on the curve than his fastball, given his lack of command. “You're throwing what you can land, but if you can't challenge guys in the strike zone, you can't be very effective, hard to get ahead.”
Strider gave up a Statcast-projected 423-foot leadoff homer to TJ Rumfield in the third, adding a walk and a strikeout. He opened the fourth allowing a leadoff triple to Jake McCarthy, then struck out leadoff hitter Edouard Julien before manager Walt Weiss removed him after his 87th pitch, with Atlanta leading 3-2.
The Braves put three runs on the board in the top of the second behind homers from Jonah Heim and Jorge Mateo on back-to-back pitches. It was Heim’s first round-tripper as a Brave, and he added a bases-loaded sac-fly in the fifth and a two-out, two-run double to right to cap the scoring in the ninth and give him a career-high-tying five RBIs.
“It's easy to hit when you got the bases loaded pretty much every at-bat,” Heim said. “It's a testament to this team. They take their walks. We're taking our singles, and we're doing damage when guys are on base. It's really fun to be in this lineup.”
Aaron Bummer gave up a two-run homer to Mickey Moniak, the first batter he faced in relief of Strider, losing the lead and adding a run to Strider’s tally.
The Braves bounced back by scoring five runs across the fifth and sixth innings and adding insurance runs in the ninth.
“You got to keep scoring runs in this place, and that's what we did,” Weiss said. “The offense kept scoring runs, kept adding on. If you don't do that, typically you lose here.”
After his March injury, Strider made three rehab starts in April with High-A Rome (3 1/3 innings) and Triple-A Gwinnett (9 1/3 innings), allowing two runs for a 1.42 ERA with 18 strikeouts.
Before his injury during Spring Training, he was 2-0 with a 3.24 ERA (three runs over 8 1/3 innings) with two walks and 11 strikeouts.
Strider is trying to regain the form he showed in 2023, when he was the only 20-game winner in the Majors and tallied an MLB-leading 281 strikeouts before suffering a right elbow injury that led to season-ending surgery on April 12, 2024. There’s no question his return bolsters the Braves' pitching.
“We're kind of a shell of ourselves when you look at us full strength,” Weiss said. “So a lot of positives to take out of this first month of the season.”
The win capped off the franchise’s best 35-game stretch to open a season in 134 years. Atlanta's 25-10 record represents its best start in the Modern Era.
“It's a good group in there,” Weiss said of the special nature of this team. “It's a really good atmosphere -- there's good mojo. I know winning does that, but there was a good feeling coming out of Spring Training. It's a really good bunch of guys that like to compete, and they enjoy playing together and winning together.”