SARASOTA, Fla. – Prospect Aaron Blair pitched two innings Wednesday against the Orioles in his first spring-training start and Braves debut, and those innings couldn’t have been much more disparate.

After pitching a perfect first inning that included a pop-up and two groundouts, the big right-hander gave up five hits, four runs and two homers in the second inning.

“The first inning was effective, I was throwing pitches down in the zone, getting ahead of hitters,” Blair said. “Second inning was complete opposite. Falling behind, leaving balls up in the zone, middle of the plate. Good hitters are going to take advantage and do what they did.”

Blair, 23, is rated as the Braves’ No. 2 pitching prospect behind left-hander Sean Newcomb, and generally considered the most polished and closest-to-the-majors among their many elite younger pitchers who’ve not yet debuted in the big leagues.

Braves manager Fredi Gonzalez was impressed that Blair pitched a perfect first inning considering how long he had to wait to pitch after his pregame warmup. The Braves sent 10 batters to the plate in the top of the first inning and scored seven runs to build a huge lead in the 11-4 win at Ed Smith Stadium.

Baltimore used its projected regular lineup, and Blair retired Manny Machado on a pop-up to catcher Tyler Flowers and Hyun Soo Kim and Adam Jones on groundouts to third base in the quick bottom of the first.

“I was prepared for us to give up five runs in the bottom of the first,” Gonzalez said. “His first appearance in a major league camp, as a starter, and he’s got to sit through all that (pregame ceremony and long top of the first). I’m thinking he’s going to give up five, and he didn’t. He went 1-2-3. I think the next inning went a little long, too, and I think that caught up with him a little bit.”

Blair, 23, will start two of the first seven Grapefruit League games and could get consideration for the opening-day rotation if the Braves don’t decide to use both non-roster invitees Kyle Kendrick and Jhoulys Chacin at the back end of the rotation.

“You see what people like about him,” Gonzalez said of Blair, who was Arizona’s No. 2 prospect behind shortstop Dansby Swanson before the Braves got both of them (and outfielder Ender Inciarte) in the December trade for Shelby Miller. “There’s some depth, some sink to his fastball. Those are good things to see.”

In the second inning, Blair surrendered a towering leadoff homer by Chris Davis that sailed over the center-field fence and rolled to second base on the adjacent practice field.

“Yeah, it’s always good to get out there, first time in spring, and face good competition like I did today,” Blair said. “I’ve just got to go back and work on a couple of things, get ready to go in five days…. In the second inning I was just up in the zone, over the middle of the plate, and they took advantage of it.

“I’ve never faced (Davis) before. I was throwing the pitches that Flowers was calling, and if I execute my pitch that doesn’t happen. It’s just something I’ve got to go back and work on. It was a fastball, supposed to be in. It was inner third (of the plate), but it was belt-high. To a guy with that kind of power, it ends up a long, long way away.”