JR Ritchie Passes Major Test in Braves Win Over Cubs

Another major league start is in the books for Atlanta Braves rookie JR Ritchie. He went 4 1/3 innings, allowing an earned run on two hits and three walks while striking out four.

By his nature, there is frustration that he didn’t pitch deeper into the game. There’s always the goal of going seven innings. A tough Cubs lineup forced him to battle in some key at-bats, running up his pitch count early.

However, he showed further signs of taking another step forward.

His breaking pitches were effective again, notably the changeup. It wasn’t the pitch that got him the most strikeouts - that was the curveball - but he felt he had better command of the pitch, allowing him to better utilize it.

“When I have good feel for it, I’m throwing it to both sides,” he said. “...tonight was the first night in a while that I felt really good, confident enough to throw it to righties, and it worked out.”

That confidence in this pitch paid off in certain matchups. He notably froze All-Star Alex Bregman with a changeup to strike him out in the bottom of the first inning.

“I think in the moment, I was just trying to get the job done, make a good 3-2 pitch there,” he said. “But, you know, looking back, it’s definitely kind of cool to see that, you know, I was able to freeze Alex Bregman, 3-2.”

Ritchie evenly mixed in his large repertoire of six pitches, not using any pitch more than 23% of the time. Four of his pitches were used to sit down Seiya Suzuki on strikes, and five of them were used in his strikeouts against Ian Happ and Michael Busch.

The long at-bats forced him to get creative, but the result was winning key battles against key bats in their lineup. This was one of the toughest lineups in the game.

The Cubs have the fifth-best OPS (.748) and are tied with the Dodgers for the best on-base percentage in the game. He had to battle, but getting the job done said a lot about Ritchie and what he’s capable of.

“It’s a tough assignment,” manager Walt Weiss said. “Especially for a young pitcher, but I’ve talked about Ritchie having the weapons, for left-handed hitters, right-handed hitters...he spins the ball well, and there’s some power with the heater. So, he’s got all the weapons.”

The Braves emerged with a 4-1 win after a late rally put the game away. Ritchie’s efforts kept them in the game, and they took another series. They have a chance to go for the sweep Thursday night. Chris Sale, a mentor of Ritchie, is set to take the mound for a 7:15 p.m. first pitch.

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