Mike Foltynewicz snapped an eight-start winless streak and outpitched two-time reigning National League Cy Young Award winner Max Scherzer on a day when the Braves’ offense put the finishing touches on an unexpectedly prolific first week.
In his first win since Aug. 5, Foltynewicz recorded eight strikeouts in 5-1/3 innings and allowed four hits, one run and two walks, along with two wild pitches and a hit batter – the kind of little annoyances that might have gotten the best of his temper and sent him into a tailspin of an inning in the past, but not Wednesday in a 7-1 Braves win at SunTrust Park.
“On a team like this that’s so good, it’s easy to get pumped up and spiral out of control (emotionally),” Foltynewicz said. “I’ve learned over the past few years to kind of slow things down, just get where you’re comfortable and know your game out there.”
Foltynewicz was reunited with Carlos Perez, who caught for the Braves three days after coming over in a hastily completed trade after the Braves’ two starting catchers were injured in the first two games of the season. “Folty” and Perez were teammates on the Astros’ Double-A Corpus Christi team in 2013.
The Nationals were 4-0 and hadn’t trailed in a game all season until the past two days, when the Braves beat them twice and led from the first inning in each game.
Foltynewicz lost his last seven starts in 2017 to put a damper on what had been a successful season to that point, then he got no decision in a loss to the Phillies last weekend in his season debut. The Braves had lost eight consecutive games he started before Wednesday, and Foltynewicz was 0-7 with a 7.34 ERA in that stretch, which was the longest skid of his career and the second-longest active streak in the majors.
But he snapped it Wednesday, when the Braves scored three unearned runs in the first inning on Preston Tucker’s two-out homer off Scherzer and rolled to their fourth win in a six-game homestand for a successful start to the season before they embark on a nine-game, three-city wintry trip that starts Friday in Colorado.
“Every time I get out there and we get a win, it doesn’t matter if it’s by my name or someone else’s, just as long as we get it,” Foltynewicz said of ending his skid. “ It’s a great start to the season with two series wins, and we’ll just keep going from there.”
He smiled and added, “But it’s good to get a win under the belt with me on the mound.”
Foltynewicz struck out Bryce Harper twice – the Natonals slugger’s first two strikeouts of the season – and worked out of two-runners-on, one-out jams in both the first and fourth innings. He also helped his own cause in a big way by hitting a two-run, two-out double off Scherzer in the fourth inning that pushed the lead to 5-1.
Before the hit, Foltynewicz was 2-for-44 with no RBIs, no walks and 29 strikeouts as a hitter since the beginning of the 2017 season.
“Any way to contribute is great,” he said. “I haven’t gotten a hit in who knows how long, so to get a hit off a Cy Young Award winner is kind of cool.”
Scherzer was charged with six hits, five runs (two earned) and two walks and threw 110 pitches in five innings and slipped to 1-3 with a 5.28 ERA in his past five starts against the Braves.
Since the beginning of the 2016 season, Scherzer is 37-14 with a 2.72 ERA and two Cy Young Awards, including 6-3 with a 4.06 ERA in 11 starts against the Braves and 31-11 with a 2.46 ERA in 56 starts against everyone else.
Scherzer has been charged with more than two runs – earned or otherwise -- only three times in his past 13 starts and two of those games were against the Braves. He’s allowed more than three runs just five times in his past 28 starts including three times against the Braves.
