The Braves got another promising glimpse of one of their prized pitching prospects Thursday afternoon at SunTrust Park, but they also got another loss.
The Arizona Diamondbacks, who led 1-0 when Braves starting pitcher Mike Soroka departed after five innings, tacked on three runs against reliever Chad Sobotka and won 4-1 to complete a three-game sweep of the series. The game ended a 2-5 homestand for the Braves, now 9-9 for the season.
Soroka made his 2019 major-league debut, allowing one run and four hits in five innings of work. He allowed a run in the first inning before holding the Diamondbacks scoreless through the next four.
Arizona had base runners in every inning against Soroka, who stranded runners in scoring position in the second and third innings and got out of a bases-loaded, one-out jam in the fifth. He struck out six while walking two (one intentional) and hitting two batters with pitches.
All in all, it was an impressive outing, both in terms of his pitches and his composure, for a 21-year-old right-hander who missed a total of 4-1/2 months last season with a sore shoulder.
But the Diamondbacks’ starter, Luke Weaver, one of three players acquired from St. Louis in the off-season for all-star first baseman Paul Goldschmidt, was even better. He held the Braves scoreless over five innings while allowing four hits and striking out nine.
The D-backs added three runs in the seventh inning against Sobotka, the first two on a 419-foot home run to right-center by Christian Walker. The third run in the inning was unearned, stemming from Johan Camargo’s second error of the day. Camargo started at third place as the Braves rested Josh Donaldson.
The Braves got on the board on Freddie Freeman’s leadoff home run in the eighth.
Please click here for full story on Thursday’s game.
