Spencer Strider has just made history. The Atlanta Braves pitcher has officially done something that’s never been done before since the franchise has been created.
Strider got the start against the Colorado Rockies on Thursday as the two teams battled it out in Truist Park. Throughout the night, Strider was consistently shutting down batters. The Braves went on to win 3-0 here and Strider threw 16 strikeouts. To put into perspective of how difficult this has been to accomplish, nobody in Braves history has been able to accomplish this dating back to the year 1893 when the mound was moved back.
Mind you, this is the most by a Braves pitcher in a nine-inning game. John Smoltz held onto the previous record for years with 15. Warren Spahn picked up a whopping 18 strikeouts back in 1952 but then again, that matchup went 15 long innings.
What’s funny about this entire record-breaking moment was that Strider had no idea he accomplished what he did. This is what he had to say after the game, “I lost track after five. I came out of the game and Kyle Wright was telling me something about John Smoltz or whatever. And I had no idea what he was talking about. It didn’t make any sense. And then somebody else said something and I just kind of looked cross-eyed at them and they were like, you know what just happened? It was neat. It was very cool for them to tell me that.”
Strider Was Phenomenal For Atlanta
The efficiency he was pitching at on this night made the performance even better. He allowed just two hits throughout the entire night and didn’t walk a single batter. During this game, he threw only 106 pitches, with 79 of those being called strikes. What’s even scarier is that he only utilized two pitches to get to this point as well, the fastball and the slider.
The first-year pitcher only had one small bump on the night for this game. That happened to come in the eighth inning. He allowed a double to Michael Toglia followed by another reach by Elias Diaz on an error. Strider didn’t let it get too far out of hand though by striking out the following two batters.
Outside of this minor bump in the road, Strider was lights out the entire night and was the main reason that the Braves came out of this matchup with a win over the Rockies. It’s shocking to see a first-year pitcher step up to the challenge and break franchise records just like this one. Strider also had this to say, “It’s pretty wild. The guys who’ve thrown in this organization, it’s a long, incredible list.” That’s a very factual statement. Maybe if Strider continues to improve, we could see him get listed among the all-time greats in a long list of Atlanta pitchers. Then again, we have quite a long distance left to go before we can reach that point in time.
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