After a successful major league debut in his first start, Braves right-hander Ryan Weber said he’s spent the days between starts getting acclimated to the big-league baseball.
That’s the actual ball, not the league. The balls used in the majors have a different texture than those in the minor leagues, where Weber had pitched for seven years until getting called up to start at the Phillies on Tuesday.
“The new ball, I really haven’t gotten a good feel for it,” Weber said. “It’s a little more slippery and the spin compared to the minor-league ball, my curve is not as sharp as I’ve been used to it.”
Weber is scheduled to face the Mets in his second start Sunday. He allowed just four hits and two runs over six innings against the last-place Phillies, though his second time through the lineup wasn’t as sharp as the first.
Now Weber will face the first-place Mets, who entered the weekend ranked fourth in the NL in runs scored and tied for third in home runs.
“It’s exciting facing a first-place team and being at home,” Weber said.
Weber, 25, was 6-5 with a 2.35 ERA in 38 combined games (nine starts) between Double-A Mississippi and Triple-A Gwinnett this season. He was 6-3 with a 2.21 ERA in 27 games (six starts) at Gwinnett.
Weber is the fourth rookie starting pitcher used by the Braves this season, following Williams Perez, Matt Wisler and Manny Banuelos. Weber got the call when Wisler missed his turn in the rotation because he’d made a relief appearance between starts. Weber pitched well enough in his debut to stay in the rotation for another turn.
Weber said he felt he had something to prove when he got promoted.
“Yeah, a little bit, because I knew that what I was doing down there was good enough to get a call,” Weber said. “Seeing what those guys did and knowing that I could pitch good, and then coming up here and doing what I did I proved to myself that I can do it.”
