The pitch that Braves rookie Tyrell Jenkins delivered to Reds slugger Jay Bruce didn’t look like a mistake. It crossed the outer part of the plate low in the strike zone but Bruce lifted it out of the ballpark for a two-run homer in the first inning.
Neither did that early homer portend a short night for Jenkins in his second career start. He made it through six innings and Gordon Beckham’s home run put him in line for a win before Braves right-hander Jim Johnson blew the save in the ninth.
Jenkins recovered from Bruce’s first-inning home run and worked around four walks and a hit batter to keep the Braves in the game. After a shaky first inning he allowed no runs and three hits with two walks over the next five.
“The first couple innings I had to work too hard to get through them,” Jenkins said. “I got behind the count a lot and I got hurt on that Bruce home run. But I finally got ahead of the count and got my pitch count down so I could go longer and help the team and help the bullpen out by being out there longer and competing.”
Jenkins needed just six pitches to retire the first two batters he faced, Zack Cozart and Billy Hamilton. He had a 0-1 count against Joey Votto before throwing three straight balls and then walking him with a full count.
Bruce hit a 3-1 fastball for an opposite-field homer.
“I thought it was a good pitch,” Jenkins said. “I asked (catcher Anthony) Recker and he said he thought it was down. We pounded him away three or four times in a row and we didn’t get him in so he was kind of sitting on that outside pitch. Hitters like that, you can’t just sit on one side of the plate because they will make you pay for it.”
The next batter, Adam Duvall, walked on six pitches. Jenkins retired Brandon Phillips on a fielder’s choice to end the inning but what once looked to be a quick and clean inning turned into a 2-0 deficit after 26 pitches.
Jenkins never pitched a clean inning but he managed to get out of jams.
He stranded Eugenio Suarez after his lead-off double in the second. Jenkins hit Brandon Phillips with a pitch with two outs and a runner on in the third before retiring Brandon Phillips. The Reds couldn’t score after getting the lead-off hitter on base in the fourth, ended the fifth by hitting into a double play and left Phillips on second with one out in the sixth.
Jenkins said he “felt great” after throwing 107 pitches, the most since he also threw 107 in a start for Triple-A Gwinnett on May 29. The Braves moved Jenkins to the bullpen after that start.
“The thing I most admire about that young man is he never quits pitching,” Braves interim manager Brian Snitker said. “He competes. He never lets off the throttle. That’s what I’ve seen for a year-and-a-half now that I’ve been around him. Good, bad or ugly the kid never quits, never gives up. What a great trait to have for a young pitcher.”
