3 takeaways: First-place Atlanta Braves walk it off vs Pirates, keep streaking

Mike Soroka finally experienced some real adversity

For the first time this season, Braves rookie right-hander – and top-two NL ERA leader – Mike Soroka had to fight tooth-and-nail through a start.

The final line looked like this:

5 IP, 10 H, 5 R, 1 BB, 3 K.

Certainly not what we’ve become accustomed to seeing from the Canadian wonder, who had amazingly surrendered just 1 run or fewer in 9 of his 10 starts before Wednesday, numbers that have thrusted him into the role of team “ace” at age 21 and merited All-Star consideration.

Wednesday’s matchup versus the Pirates was a different story, as Soroka struggled to put away hitters and found himself in frequent trouble.

There’s no doubting just how historic of a start to a season this has been for Mike Soroka, thus he probably gets a free pass for his first legitimate bad outing of a season.

Having said that, the adversity he faced on Wednesday isn’t necessarily shocking: peripheral stats indicated that Soroka’s terrific early-season run was due for a moment of regression (his xFIP of 3.51 being a full two runs higher than his microscopic ERA of 1.38).

The BABIP (batting average on balls in play) gods were not on the side of the Braves’ righty against the Pirates, either, as nearly half (10) of the 21 balls put in play by the Bucs found holes for base hits, a stark contrast to Soroka’s very favorable opponents’ BABIP of .212 going into the game.

Furthermore, while Soroka stayed mostly around the strike zone (98 pitches – 68 of them strikes – only one walk), it did appear that he was often too much in the strike zone, especially with his slider, and the Pirates hitters made him pay.

This is highlighted by the fact that Soroka threw a pitch in the strike zone to 17 of the 25 Pirate hitters he faced, yet came away with only three punchouts for the night.

Let’s be clear: this is absolutely no reason for concern. Mike Soroka has been pitching at an unsustainable pace for over two months before Wednesday. (After all, wouldn’t just about any pitcher like to give up 5 runs on 10 hits and STILL have a sub-2.00 ERA in mid-June?)

An outing like the one versus the Pirates was imminent, and the truth is that the kid will probably be better off next time because of it.

This will provide the next test in Mike Soroka’s very young career: how does this rising star respond to adversity? Time will tell.