In a six-day span this week, Mike Foltynewicz faced the Red Sox and Chris Sale in Boston and the Nationals and Stephen Strasburg in Atlanta. He outpitched both of those aces and the Braves won both games, rolling behind an absolute gem of an outing from ‘Folty’ on Friday against the Nats.
He threw a two-hit shutout with 11 strikeouts -- the first complete game of his career – in a 4-0 win at SunTrust Park, where a crowd of 33,845 roared with approval when Foltynewicz struck out Braves arch-nemesis Bryce Harper to end the game. Trea Turner singled with two out, which only seemed to juice the crowd more as Harper came to bat.
“It was one of the loudest (situations) I’ve been in,” Foltynewicz said. “When it got to the last two hitters, Turner and Harper, when I got two strikes, I got goosebumps myself. They (crowd) were electric out there, it made me that much more confident to get through that ninth inning.”
After becoming the first Braves starting pitcher to record so much as an out in the eighth inning this season, Foltynewicz recorded five more and became the first Atlanta pitcher to throw a complete game with two hits or more and double-digit strikeouts in 17 years, since Hall of Famer Greg Maddux struck out 14 Brewers in a two-hit, 1-0 win on May 2, 2001.
That Foltynewicz is even included in the same sentence with Maddux says plenty about how far the formerly short-fused redhead has come in a short time.
He’s gone from frequently losing his composure and coming apart when a call didn’t go his way and having an inning unravel – the kind of thing that still happened on occasion last season – to allowing two earned runs or fewer in 11 of 12 starts this season, reducing his ERA to 2.22 (fifth-best in the league) and out-pitching Sale and Strasburg while beating two of baseball’s best teams in a six-day span.
Foltynewicz allowed a total of five hits, one run and four walks with 18 strikeouts in 16 innings of those two wins.
“It’s good to see that he can do that and kind of match those guys,” Braves manager Brian Snitker said, “because that’s the cream of the crop in our game.”
On Friday, Foltynewicz, a 26-year-old Illinois native, sure looked a lot like cream-of-the-crop material himself.
He gave up a two-out single to Bryce Harper in the first inning, then retired the next 20 batters before Juan Soto’s leadoff walk in the eighth. The only three-ball count he faced in the first seven innings was on Harper’s hit.
“He was tremendous,” said Dansby Swanson, whose three-run homer off Strasburg capped a four-run seventh inning. “I think the credit should be given not only to (Foltynewicz) but to Kurt (Suzuki); he called a phenomenal game. The preparation that they put in in order to make sure they’re executing game plans and everything is phenomenal. Proud of everybody. Definitely a team effort but Folty threw the heck out of it. It was awesome.”
Foltynewicz threw 77 strikes in 107 pitches and was synched throughout with steady veteran catcher Suzuki, mixing high-90s heat with a slew of sliders and curveballs and a few change-ups, though he didn’t much need that pitch the way his breaking stuff was working.
“The breaking balls were really good, both of them,” Snitker said. “He just held his velocity. It was one of those where he could have pitched all night, I think. ... I think it’s just a great experience for these guys to go out in the ninth inning and finish a game. Just really good for him to be able to experience that.”
Foltynewicz agreed. Thirty minutes after the game, adrenaline coursed through his 6-foot-4 lean physique as he talked excitedly about what it felt like to pitch a complete game and give the bullpen the night off.
“That’s fun. It’s different; first time. Very energized still. I feel like I could go back out there and at least get one more (inning),” said Foltynewicz, who credited the crowd and especially a diving catch by Nick Markakis on a Turner fly ball near the right-field line on the first play of the game.
“Great crowd, great energy. ‘Kakes’ started us out with that diving catch, I think that got me really going, got me focus, got me locked in,” he said. “And after that we just attacked them. They were really aggressive tonight, after the first two pitches they either popped up or grounded out, which made me go deeper in the game. ...
“After ‘Kakes’ made that catch I was on a roll. The fourth, fifth and sixth I was just in a groove there. The seventh. All my pitches were working tonight. Slider, curveball were really there. I didn’t throw too many change-ups but the fastball was kind of there up in the zone too, to get some swings and misses. Everything was working tonight, one of those days where you’re in a groove and just going with the flow.”
He's been going with the flow most of the season.
Foltynewicz has allowed more than two earned runs just once in 12 starts, that when he gave up six runs in five innings May 4 against the Giants. The nine hits he allowed that day were also his season high, with six hits his next-most allowed.
In his 11 starts other than the loss to the Giants, he’s 5-2 with a 1.55 ERA. And since giving up two homers in his April 30 season debut against the Phillies, Foltynewicz has allowed just three homers in 64 innings over 11 starts.
In five starts since that game against the Giants, he’s posted a microscopic 0.56 ERA and .155 opponents’ average, allowing two earned runs and 13 walks with 37 strikeouts in 32 innings.
Foltynewicz and left-hander Sean Newcomb have locker stalls on a small section of the back wall in the Braves clubhouse, and they share an empty locker between theirs which they use to store extra gear or whatever. Hanging in that locker Friday were the two players’ jerseys from last weekends special Memorial Day uniforms. Side-by-side, the jerseys hung, the names Newcomb and Foltynewicz stitched on the back.
They looked good in that formation. Just as Newcomb -- an All-Star candidate -- and Foltynewicz have looked good emerging as a formidable, power-armed duo for the Braves.
“We talked at the beginning of the season about just how well we’re going to do this year, to pick it up and be consistent,” Foltynewicz said. “We had a good talk in spring training. All this hard work is starting to pay off. Just go grinding it out there knowing what we can do, and we’re doing it.”
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