Walt Weiss after JR Ritchie’s eye-opening showing: ‘That was impressive’

NORTH PORT, Fla. — Striking out five batters in two innings while throwing six types of pitches — that has a way of getting the manager’s attention.

Braves prospect JR. Ritchie’s promising spring ascended to a new peak Friday when he registered the five strikeouts in the final two innings of the team’s spring-training game against the Red Sox at CoolToday Park.

“That was impressive,” manager Walt Weiss said Sunday. “Multiple, I would say, ‘plus’ pitches. And there’s some power there, too, like I said — some pitch ability. He looked really good. The change-up, it’s got a chance to be a big-time pitch.”

A first-round draft pick by the Braves in 2022, Ritchie threw 29 pitches, 20 for strikes. Red Sox batters swung at 14 pitches — eight swings and misses, four foul balls, one fly out and one home run. His fastball reached 96 mph. He did not allow a walk.

According to Statcast, he mixed in six types of pitches — a four-seam fastball, changeup, curveball, cutter, sweeper and sinker.

“His stuff was really good,” catcher Sandy León, who caught Ritchie, told the AJC. “I caught him last year (at Gwinnett). To be young and be in big-league camp and do that, it says a lot about a guy.”

It was his second appearance of the spring. He threw two scoreless innings with one strikeout and no hits or walks allowed in his debut.