The weather forecast was so bad Monday, calling for a 60-90 percent chance of thunderstorms throughout the afternoon, that the Braves decided around noon to scratch rookie Mike Foltynewicz from a 1:05 p.m. start against the Astros.
Instead they would use relief pitchers, starting with Michael Kohn and including four innings from left-hander James Russell. So what happened? A light rain stopped by the third inning and the Braves and Astros played for more than 3 ½ hours without any delay, the sun shining brightly in the late innings of a 14-10 Braves win.
Foltynewicz will start Tuesday against the Phillies, with originally planned starter Manny Banuelos to follow in relief.
“We didn’t know the weather (was going to change),” Braves manager Fredi Gonzalez said. “It was raining, and the mound wasn’t too (dry), and the forecast – we were only going to get one inning in. We should have known, in Florida you can never predict the weather. The next thing you know we get nine innings of baseball. So we’ll bump (Foltynewicz) back to tomorrow.”
Lots of hits: The Braves had 18 of their 19 hits Monday in the first five innings, and scored all of their runs in that span to build a 14-4 lead. They hit no home runs but racked up six extra-base hits from six different players, including five doubles and a two-run triple from Pedro Ciriaco.
The Braves went 19 hits, five walks and only one strikeout, which would have been unheard of from Atlanta teams of recent vintage. And they went 11-for-20 with runners in scoring position.
“Yeah, Seitz was pretty happy today about that stuff,” Gonzalez said, referring to first-year Braves hitting coach Kevin Seitzer.
