What Atlanta Braves Pitcher Impacted the Team Most During the Month of May?
By Steven Teal
Attention Getter… for all the right reasons
I love the way Mike carries himself on and off the field. He just has the “it” factor that you look for in a professional baseball player and that is incredible to see from a someone as young as Soroka.
You can see that in his interviews and in every way he goes about his business – on and off the mound.
"To have it happen that way for a while now is pretty special and look to keep it going."
— Bally Sports: Braves (@BravesOnBally) May 31, 2019
-- Mike Soroka on the run he's been on and what's working in his preparation. @Braves | #ChopOn pic.twitter.com/ZARzNaStFd
Mike Soroka’s Historic Start
Not only has Soroka’s start been impressive for the Atlanta Braves but it’s placed him in some historic company across Major League Baseball.
Mike Soroka’s 1.07 ERA is the third lowest in MLB history through the first 8 starts of a season. The two pitchers ahead of Mike (Fernando Valenzuela & Vida Blue) both went on to win the Cy Young award.
Both Valenzuela and Blue won the Cy Young Award …
— MLB Stats (@MLBStats) May 26, 2019
Will Soroka bring it home too? pic.twitter.com/KL09vbHSZc
He’s already in crazy-historic territory in a number of ways.
Mike Soroka has gone at least 4.2 innings and given up 1 or 0 earned runs in 6 of his first 8 career starts.
— Knockahoma Nation (@KnockahomaNTN) April 30, 2019
Here's the full list of pitchers who've done that since 1920:
Yordano Ventura
Mike Soroka
Eduardo Rodriguez
John Henry Johnson
Kyle Hendricks
Dave Ferriss
Jarred Cosart pic.twitter.com/yUWeFpdiR0
Here’s more:
Mike Soroka is now tied with 4 other pitchers for the longest streak of yielding 1 or fewer earned runs in a game to start a season since 1913. 2 of the pitchers on that list did it before 1920 (re: baseball-reference.com).
The others are Edinson Volquez (2008, Cincy) and Mike Norris (1980, Oakland).
If he does it again today (Saturday vs. Detroit), he’ll stand alone with 9 such games.
Mike Soroka is certainly on pace for an unforgettable season for the Atlanta Braves.
As long as he can stay healthy and not become fatigued once he reaches the latter half of the season, I believe the Braves will have yet another Rookie of the Year award winner.
He has already doubled his number of innings pitched this season. He only pitched 25 2/3 innings before being shut down due to injury in 2018.
I think he will be fine as long as he doesn’t suffer through too many high pitch count innings (he’s averaging about 92 pitches and 6.2 innings per outing). If he continues to be efficient, there shouldn’t be very much to worry about.
As noted, he gets the start on Saturday, June 1st against the Detroit Tigers. Game time is at 4:10 pm EST and can be seen on Fox Sports South.
Call To The Bullpen. dark. Next
Here’s to hoping that Mike Soroka can carry this success over into June and stake his claim as one of the best starting pitchers in all of Major League Baseball.