If first impressions are any indication, then the Atlanta Braves and their fanbase should be pretty happy with what Mike Yastrzemski may have in store for the upcoming season. One of the newest signings for the Braves made his presence felt almost immediately in the Grapefruit League opener. He kept that up and had a pretty good day at the plate as the Braves cruised to a win over the Rays.
When I say that Yaz made his presence felt immediately, I mean it — he hit second for the Braves in this one and he took the first pitch he saw from Rays pitcher T.J. Nichols and crushed it deep to center field to put the Braves ahead early on in this one. Nichols left one right in Yaz’s wheelhouse and he made no mistake with it in order to crack his first homer (of spring training) with the Braves.
Yastrzemski wasn’t done there, either. He hit a hard single off of Kodi Whitley in the third inning and then he capped off his day by coaxing a walk out of Joe Rock. Once he reached base, Kevin Kilpatrick replaced him at first place and that was the end of his day. Sure, it was the very first day of spring training but I’d say that reaching base three times with one of those being a homer and playing some solid defense in the field on top of that makes for a lovely start to spring training. Here’s to seeing plenty more where that came from from here on out and especially in the regular season as well.
Mike Yastrzemski wasn’t the only player who hit the ground running. Journeyman outfielder Ben Gamel also made his presence felt in this one, as he hit a homer of his own to lead off the second inning. Gamel golfed one that was low and in the zone from Andrew Wantz and sent it flying way out for a dinger that extended Atlanta’s quick start in this one.
Gamel wasn’t finished as he went on to tack on two more RBI via a looping double to left-center. Mike Yastrzemski scored on the play as well, so those two players really were all over the place (in a good way) in this one. The Braves led 5-0 after three innings in this one — Mike Yastrzemski and Ben Gamel were responsible for four of the runs scored (two each) and four of the RBI (three for Gamel and one for Yaz) as well. Again, talk about hitting the ground running!
On the other side of things, Atlanta’s pitching staff did their part in order to make sure that the Rays stayed quiet for the vast majority of this contest. Carlos Carrasco got things going with three strikeouts and three hits allowed over two innings of work. Carrasco won’t win any velocity contests any time soon as he topped out at around 91-mph on the radar gun during Saturday’s action but it was still nice to see him retire the side in both innings with little-to-no issues.
Dylan Dodd picked up the baton in the third inning and pitched a scoreless frame while only giving up a hit and striking out a batter. Dodd’s velocity was certainly up, as his sinker was regularly hitting 96-mph on the gun in this one. That’s definitely encouraging if he can keep that up going forward since he was sitting at 94-mph with his sinker last season.
Hayden Harris got the ball for the fourth inning and while he did run into a situation with two men on and nobody out, Harris did a great job of escaping the jam by getting an infield fly and two strikeouts to nip Tampa Bay’s scoring threat right in the bud.
Offseason signing James Karinchak took on pitching duties in the fifth inning and tallied two strikeouts of his own with just one hit allowed in order to keep the ball rolling for the Braves and keep the Rays off of the scoreboard. In fact, the Rays did not score until the sixth inning when Logan Davidson homered off of Elieser Hernández and the Braves didn’t give up a walk until Austin Pope handed out the first free pass of the day all the way into the eighth inning. Atlanta’s pitchers racked up 12 strikeouts in this one. Suffice to say, this was a very solid performance from the pitching staff in this one.
It was a very solid performance all-around for the Braves as they got their Grapefruit League campagin started off on a winning note. The excitement should bleed into Sunday’s outing as Chris Sale has been confirmed as the starter for the home opener at CoolToday Park against the Twins. For now, Mike Yastrzemski and Ben Gamel should both feel pretty satisfied with their efforts today as they make the short trip back to Braves camp in North Port from the Rays facility in Port Charlotte.