Strider, Braves confident they can get hot again

BOSTON -- The Braves entered their two-game series against the Red Sox up 12 games over the Phillies in the National League East. They left Boston having dropped both games at Fenway Park and have lost seven of their last 10.

Spoiler alert: They’re still in an excellent position.

“It’s gonna happen,” manager Brian Snitker said. “It’s just the nature of the beast here, you just keep fighting and showing up every day and we’re gonna get hot again at some point in time.”

With 24-year-old Spencer Strider facing Boston for the first time in his career, the Braves fell, 5-3, to the Red Sox in Wednesday night’s finale at Fenway.

Nearly following the blueprint of his start against the D-backs on July 20, Strider cruised through his first five innings before surrendering two late homers: a sixth-inning solo blast from Rafael Devers that was hit 1.06 feet off the ground and a solo shot from Triston Casas in the seventh.

“That’s one that I can’t really get too frustrated with,” Strider said of the 1-2 slider that Devers hit to right field. “I mean we made our pitch, two strikes. That’s a good hitter, and he took a Devers swing and hit a Devers homer. So it is what it is. The Casas one was, if I looked back on the pitches I threw today, that’s one out of a couple pitches I didn’t execute and, sure enough, it’s a solo homer.”

Chasing a 300-strikeout season, Strider added 10 punchouts to bring his 2023 count to 199. He’s notched at least nine strikeouts in each of his last seven starts. Against Boston, Strider generated 25 swings and two whiffs on his four-seam fastball and 18 swings (11 whiffs) on his slider.

“I feel like I’ve really thrown the ball well going back a lot of outings,” Strider said. “And it seems like despite a lot of swings, a lot of swings and misses, a lot of strikes, just a couple mistakes that I make in an outing, just can’t get away with them.”

Facing leadoff hitter Jarren Duran in the first, Strider quickly found himself in a 3-0 count against the .311-hitting lefty. Strider responded to the hitter’s count with three straight fastball strikes: 98.3 mph, 99 and 99.1 to retire Duran looking.

It wasn’t until the third inning that Strider allowed a hit: a leadoff single by Triston Casas before he retired the next three batters. Strider’s 41 pitches through the first four innings marked a career low.

“The way he’s regrouped, the way he’s thrown the ball the last few games has been really, really impressive to me,” Snitker said. Like I said I think last time, [it] looks to me like he’s kind of getting stronger. That was a really solid outing, he did his job tonight. [We] just couldn’t seal the deal.”

With one runner on and one out in the seventh after Casas' homer, Strider turned the ball over to Pierce Johnson, who was acquired in a trade with the Rockies on Monday. In his Braves debut, Johnson allowed Strider’s runner to score on a two-run double from Justin Turner, who entered the at-bat 0-for-6 in the regular season against Johnson.

“The breaking ball to Turner looked like it stayed over the middle of the plate a little bit, didn’t have any depth to it,” Snitker said, “but stuff overall was really good. Good to see him out there. Good to see him get his feet wet. I like what I saw, he’s going to help us.”

Turner said: “You’ve got to give credit to Strider. Like I said, he’s a really good pitcher and did a really good job again tonight. I think a 10-strikeout night for him, which seems like it's a pretty routine thing for him."

Strider left with the lead in the seventh courtesy of Ozzie Albies, who opened the scoring with a three-run homer into Atlanta’s bullpen in the sixth inning. It was Albies’ second go-ahead three-run blast of the week, after he hit a game-winning homer in the eighth inning on Sunday in Milwaukee.

The Braves boarded their flight home to Atlanta and will have an off-day to regroup from a tough road trip before opening a six-game homestand starting Friday with the Brewers.

“Good club, it was a tough two games,” Snitker said. “We’ll just take a day off tomorrow and then start a winning streak.”