Mike Foltynewicz came out firing. His velocity was on par with his All-Star season. His swing-and-miss slider showed the juice he’d been working to regain through six starts.
But home runs remained a problem, so despite occasional eye-test approval, Foltynewicz gave up five runs in the Braves’ 8-2 loss to the Tigers. Friday yielded their third consecutive defeat, each coming at home in SunTrust Park to a losing team.
“We’ve had these stretches before,” manager Brian Snitker said. “It’s just every now and then, you go through a funk. You just have to fight your way out of it. We’ll be back tomorrow and start another winning streak. It happens. It doesn’t matter who you’re playing. Things don’t go your way and you have to fight through it.”
The Tigers homered three times off Foltynewicz, who’s allowed multiple home runs in five of his seven starts. He’s served up 13 long balls over 38-2/3 innings after permitting 17 in 183 innings last season.
“That was weird,” Foltynewicz said. “Fastball was great, slider was great. I threw some good curves but they put the bat on it. Other than that, I thought I threw the ball pretty well actually. The outcome would say otherwise, I definitely left a few pitches up, but other than that I wish I’d had that fifth inning back.”
Foltynewicz, who missed spring training with bone spurs in his throwing elbow, hasn’t surpassed six innings in a start (he went five on Friday). But his stuff has looked improved, as he acknowledged, even with the lackluster result. His problems boiled down to a few select pitches.
Former South Carolina standout Grayson Greiner belted a high 96-mph four-seamer for Detroit’s first run of the night. Niko Goodrum punished a changeup in the third, while Nick Castellanos’ two-run shot came on a curveball low in the zone.
Goodrum, who attended Fayette County High School, pummeled the Braves all night. He had a career-best five hits, two of which left the park. The Tigers had 11 hits in total, adding insurance runs off Jerry Blevins and Josh Tomlin.
“The stuff wasn’t bad,” Snitker said, unable to find a reason for Foltynewicz’s increased home run totals. “He hung the changeup for a homer. I couldn’t even tell what Castellanos hit – a breaking ball. … It started out like oh my God, it’s going to be really good. Then there’s five runs on the board.”
Foltynewicz didn’t allow any homers in his last start against the Cardinals, but he’d given up seven in the three outings prior. Friday’s start ballooned his ERA over 6.00, even with the slider looking increasingly crispy.
“I didn’t do a good job tonight behind the plate calling a game,” catcher Brian McCann said. “His stuff was there, they just capitalized on mistakes. He only made a couple mistakes and they capitalized on it. I didn’t do a good job mixing it up tonight.”
McCann is encouraged by the progress Foltynewicz has made in recent weeks. His location has been more consistent. His velocity is playing up, and the slider is drastically better than it was when he returned from the injured list.
Still, he’ll be judged on results. His previous two starts before Friday appeared much better in the box score, but perhaps the latest five innings represent another building block as Foltynewicz more closely resembles the strikeout artist he was in 2018.
Mike Soroka, coming off a 0.79 ERA across five May starts, opens June on Saturday for the Braves. The righty will be making his second career start against an American League team.
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