Atlanta Braves: 3 Takeaways from Tuesday nights loss to the Reds
By Steven Teal
3. Kevin Gausman not as sharp
Gausman came off of a stellar start against the Arizona Diamondbacks and looked to do more of the same at Great American Ballpark. However, that would not be the case as the Atlanta Braves right hander would struggle with his secondary pitches.
Kevin didn’t have the best outing but it certainly wasn’t his worst either. He just didn’t seem as confident on the mound as he did against the Diamondbacks.
Not only were Gausman’s secondary pitches a little off, but also his fastball velocity. Last week, Kevin was consistently hitting 97-98 mph on his fastball. That velocity was down about a mile and a half on Tuesday.
He sat around 94-95 all evening (with the exception of the 4th inning which saw Gausman toss an 89 mph fastball). That’s not too bad but clearly that impacted how successful he was able to be.
The scoring against Gausman began early as Yasiel Puig launched a 432 foot homer on the first pitch he saw in the bottom of the first. Kevin made a decent pitch running in on the hitter but Puig was sitting fastball all the way and absolutely crushed it.
The same would happen in the bottom of the 4th inning as Tucker Barnhart launched a solo shot off Gausman on a 1-0 count. Again, it wasn’t a terrible outing by Kevin but it certainly wasn’t what Atlanta needed from him.
Kevin would finish his outing after 5 1/3 innings allowing 5 earned run on 8 hits and striking out 6 batters.
#Braves' Gausman: 5 1/3 IP, 8 H, 6 R (5 ER), 2 BB, 6 K, 2 HR. 58 strikes in 88 pitches.
— David O'Brien (@DOBrienATL) April 24, 2019
When Gausman exited the game, the Braves were only down by 1 run. Unfortunately for him, the bullpen woes would strike again.