JR Ritchie dazzles in his MLB debut for the Braves

WASHINGTON — JR Ritchie will remember a lot about his MLB debut, including the first pitch he threw from a big-league mound, a 93-mph fastball that was launched 375 feet into the right-field stands by James Wood.

Welcome to The Show, kid.

“I don’t know if it’s gonna be, like, good to remember? Honestly, probably, for the next year I’ll hate it, and then after that it’ll be kind of be like a funny, like, ‘Hey, first pitch of my big league career gave up a nuke,’ ” Ritchie said. “It’s kind of, ‘Are you serious? Like, that’s how it’s working?’ A lot of it was just trying to get back on track mentally, treating it like 0-0. That’s one pitch. If the guy’s gonna jump on it, he’s gonna jump on it. Props to him. I knew going into it he’s gonna swing, tried to get it away, just left it a bit middle.”

The 22-year-old Ritchie, with his mother, father and fiancée in attendance, along with what he estimated was 20 other well-wishers who came from Austin, Texas, Portland, Oregon, and New York to see his big moment, bounced back from that lead-off homer and pitched seven innings, allowing two earned runs on five hits and a walk. He threw 89 pitches (54 strikes), got ahead on 17 of 27 batters and induced nine whiffs.

He also earned his first victory thanks to the Braves scoring four runs in the top of the seventh and going on to win 7-2.

“I think this is always gonna surpass it,” Ritchie said when asked how the reality of his debut compared to the dreams he had about it. “One pitch into it, I was kinda like, ‘Oh no.’ But after that, I bounced back really well, I stayed on my game plan. I was really happy about that. This will always be a very, very special day for me.”

Ritchie (1-0) became the first pitcher in franchise history to go seven innings, strike out at least seven hitters and allow two runs or less in his MLB debut.

“This is surreal,” Ritchie’s mother, Viktoria Ritchie, told Wiley Ballard during the BravesVision television broadcast. “From starting in T-ball and going through all the levels that he did, this is just awesome for him to be here and to see what he has worked so hard for.”

His father, Ian Ritchie, shared his pregame message to his son: “I said, ‘Go out and get your team a win today. You need to get your team six innings. They called you up to get six or seven innings out of you today and keep ’em in the ballgame and try to get ’em a win. Get out there and do your job (as) best you can and get us through that six or seven innings and get the Braves a win.’”

Ritchie said he and his fiancée, Makena Miller, were at Ritchie’s apartment in Lawrencville next to Gwinnett Field (home of the Triple-A Stripers) on Wednesday and had just finished baking a cake together when Stripers manager Kanekoa Texeira reached out to Ritchie, inviting him out for food. Texeira pulled a fast one on Ritchie, saying the meal would have to wait because the Washington state native had gotten the call-up.

Ritchie said he arrived in Washington, D.C. at 2 a.m. Thursday, less than 12 hours before taking the mound at Nationals Park.

About 8 1/2 hours later, Ritchie sat at a circular table in the clubhouse dining space and went over the day’s game plan with catcher Drake Baldwin, pitching coach Jeremy Hefner and catching coach Dustin Garneau. Ritchie then made his way to his locker, was tossed a fresh, clean baseball, popped in his earbuds and stared intently into his locker.

He said he likes to visualize his pitches and his game before his starts.

When Ritchie got up to head to the training room, Baldwin was reminded by the clubhouse attendants to toss Ritchie’s first pitch and the ball from Ritchie’s first strikeout back to the Braves’ dugout for safekeeping.

Baldwin, of course, didn’t have a chance to preserve that first pitch because Wood planted it into the seats.

But Ritchie, wearing No. 60, recovered nicely with a groundout to second, strikeout of José Tena on a change-up and pop to shallow left.

“I think that says a lot about him,” Baldwin said. “I mean, I don’t know if there’s a tougher way to start your big league career. It says a lot about him coming back after that.”

Baldwin and Ritchie were both Braves draft picks in 2022 - Ritchie went 35th overall and Baldwin, the 2025 National League rookie of the year, was picked 96th. Ritchie said he and Baldwin were actually watching a video Thursday morning of when the two were battery mates in Augusta for the Single-A GreenJackets.

“So cool,” Baldwin said of being part of Ritchie’s debut. “Seeing what he’s done throughout up the minor leagues and stuff, and then being able to catch him today was pretty special. He went out there and did awesome.

In Ritchie’s second inning, Daylen Lile ripped a change-up into left field for a one-out single and Jorbit Vivas lined a curveball into right with two outs to put runners at the corners. Ritchie, however, got some help from the Nationals when they tried to sneak home a run by having Vivas steal second — Lile was caught between third base and home and was tagged out to end the inning.

Ritchie’s third inning was much smoother with a pair of fly outs and a strikeout of Luis García Jr., who was frozen on a backdoor curveball.

The fourth inning began with another strikeout of Tena before CJ Abrams took an ankle-high change-up and golfed it out to right for a solo home run. Ritchie worked around a two-out single later in the inning to limit the damage.