AJ Smith-Shawver is back on the mound for the Atlanta Braves and not a moment too soon. Even though the Braves dropped the game he pitched, don't let the end result preoccupy the mind. The return of the 23-year-old right-hander was still a breath of fresh air.
Checking the box score will simply show you that he allowed four earned runs on five hits and three walks in 4 1/3 innings. Just three strikeouts may cause some concern. Rest assured, that's not the full story.
Smith-Shawver retired the side in order in the first inning, including striking out Byron Buxton, and benefited from a nice over-the-shoulder grab from Austin Riley to begin the second. Then, he sat down Royce Lewis on strikes with an 85-mph splitter that fell out of the zone.
He ran into some trouble in the third inning and allowed a run on a weak ground ball that stayed in the infield. The irony here is that a run was allowed in a moment that featured one of his strengths through four solid innings: weak contact.
There were bloop singles, slow rollers and a well-placed bunt by Luke Keashall. Runs aren't going to score that way very often. If that's what it took, then that is enough of a reason to be encouraged if you're the Braves.
But the wheels fell off a little bit in the fifth. After surrendering a bases-loaded walk to Josh Bell with one out in the fifth, the Braves made the move to bring Dylan Dodd out of the bullpen. He gave up a two-run double to Minnesota's Kody Clemens, putting the finishing touches on Smith-Shawver's stat line.
His fastball velocity was down. He averaged 95 mph on his fastball when he was averaging over 97 mph in his last MLB start and down in the minor leagues.
It was Smith-Shawver's second start in the majors since returning from Tommy John surgery. Both starts came nearly a month apart because he was sent back down to Gwinnett following the first start, where he was the 27th man for a doubleheader against the Mets.
A similar story can be told for both starts. His first four innings were solid, and then he got into trouble in the fifth inning.
What he was allowed to do in the minors, which was to continue building up his pitch count and refine things further, will start to carry over more.
That future came on Wednesday, and the overall returns were positive. Weak contact, composure on the mound, good velocity, and his bread-and-butter splitter was sharp, earning him two strikeouts.
The stamina will increase, the velocity will improve and the stuff will play.
While it's increasingly unlikely that the team will get Spencer Schwellenbach or Spencer Strider back this season, returning Smith-Shawver to the rotation in time to ramp up for the postseason will pay off for the Braves in the long run.
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This article was originally published on www.si.com/mlb/braves/onsi as Don't Let Box Score Fool You When Assessing Braves AJ Smith-Shawver .
