CLEVELAND -- This is the version of Hurston Waldrep the Braves envisioned when they drafted him in the first round of the 2023 MLB Draft.
While his seven-inning cameo with the Braves last season didn’t go well, he has made that look like a distant memory this season.
The latest example of that came on Friday night, when the rookie tossed six scoreless innings with seven strikeouts in Atlanta’s 2-0 win over the Guardians at Progressive Field.
“He’s a different guy than what I remember last year,” manager Brian Snitker said.
With the strong start, Waldrep, who is ranked as the Braves’ No. 7 prospect per MLB Pipeline, now has a 1.02 ERA across 17 2/3 innings in his three MLB appearances this year.
It was another strong outing for Waldrep with the battery of catcher Sean Murphy, who helped him develop his sinker earlier this year while Murphy was rehabbing in Triple-A Gwinnett.
“The Minor Leagues are for working on your game and finding your identity, and that’s what he did,” Murphy said. “He’s a pitcher who knows who he is.”
On Friday, Waldrep’s splitter was his best pitch as he generated eight whiffs on it. He also had five whiffs on his slider and one on his cutter.
“His splitter is a weapon, and now that he’s using his other stuff it’s even better,” Snitker said. “What he’s doing is impressive.”
The usage came in large part due to how Waldrep’s feel for his arsenal changed throughout the outing.
“We realized the cutter was going to play well to lefties, and then my slider came in late,” Waldrep said. “It was really nice to break that out there at the end.”
Steven Kwan recorded both of Cleveland’s hits off Waldrep with a third-inning double and a sixth-inning single.
Kwan’s single meant that Waldrep had to work around a baserunner in his final inning, but he negated that threat with back-to-back strikeouts of José Ramírez and Kyle Manzardo. After striking out Manzardo, Waldrep screamed into his glove in celebration while walking off the mound.
“I know they’re a passive lineup, so I wanted to get ahead there,” Waldrep said. “I knew I had to capitalize since I was facing them for a third time. I trusted my stuff.”
After falling behind a bit to Cleveland’s hitters early in the game, Waldrep got through the fourth inning on 15 pitches before posting a 1-2-3 fifth inning on 16 pitches.
“I settled into the outing and got a feel for the game,” Waldrep said. “It came down to me trusting my stuff and trusting what Murphy called.”
Kwan’s double was one of two times the Guardians got a runner to second base against Waldrep. The first came in the second inning, when Manzardo walked and advanced on a one-out fielder’s choice.
“He didn't throw very many sinkers or four-seams,” Guardians manager Stephen Vogt said. “He was pitching off the slider-cutter [mix] and executed the split when he needed to, landed his curveball early. That's some impressive stuff. It was a fun outing."
Atlanta’s first run came in the fourth inning when Nacho Alvarez Jr. (Atlanta’s No. 6 prospect) walked with the bases loaded against Guardians starter Joey Cantillo.
The Braves loaded the bases on two walks and a single, which led to Alvarez getting his shot with the bases loaded. He worked the count to 3-1 and then took a pitch up and in to work the walk. The Braves added another run in the ninth inning on an RBI single from Michael Harris II.
Harris is now hitting .386 with 11 RBIs across 57 at-bats in August.
After making his season debut in long relief in Atlanta’s win over the Reds in the Speedway Classic, Waldrep made his second start in the rotation. It’s a sight that Braves fans should get used to seeing every five days.
“He’s a full go,” Snitker said when asked if there was an innings limit on Waldrep. “We’ve never done that here as far as [managing] stressful innings across starts. Hopefully he’s in the rotation and makes the rest of his starts this year.”
Waldrep was followed by a strong outing from the bullpen. Daysbel Hernández, Tyler Kinley and Raisel Iglesias combined for three perfect innings to extend the bullpen’s scoreless innings streak to 12.
“It’s been great,” Snitker said. “Those guys have all been phenomenal.”