Atlanta Braves: Takeaways from offensive explosion in Minnesota

2. Mike Foltynewicz’s Impressive Return

It seemed like the Atlanta Braves would never see Mike Foltynewicz return to his 2018 form. Mike struggled early on with his command and couldn’t seem to find any consistency or success.

Even though Mike missed a good portion of Spring Training, he simply looked lost on the mound. A lot of his bad habits started to creep in (losing his composure on the mound, overthrowing) before being sent down to Triple-A Gwinnett to fix things.

While there were mechanical issues for Folty to tweak, I think being able to handle the emotional aspect of pitching was also something they wanted him to work on. His slider is the pitch that needed the most improvement.

It seems that he did exactly what the Braves asked him to do. He accepted his assignment to Gwinnett and had a lot of success for the Stripers. In 6 starts for Gwinnett, Folty was 4-0 with a 2.67 ERA allowing just 10 earned runs on 32 hits with 8 walks and 31 strikeouts.

Folty faced a tough task in his return to the mound for the Atlanta Braves. The Minnesota Twins are a ballclub known for their ability to drive the ball out of the park. They are not a team you want to struggle against.

Mike had a couple of blemishes in the game as he allowed two home runs (one to Nelson Cruz, and one to Mitch Garver).

Other than that, the Atlanta Braves right-hander looked like the former All-Star we expect him to be. His slider had a lot more movement and his fastball velocity/command were back in form.

He was able to keep hitters off-balance and mixed his pitches extremely well. It was really encouraging to see because if Folty can pitch that way every game, you have to like the Braves chances the rest of the season.

Mike ran out of steam in the 6th inning but that was partially due to the fact that he sat in the dugout for 31 minutes as the Braves offense exploded. It just seemed like he lost his groove a little bit.

You hated to see his game end the way it did but he should be extremely encouraged by this start. He improved in every single area that the Atlanta Braves asked him to.

He walked two batters in the game but what was impressive is that he didn’t let it affect him mentally. His composure stayed intact throughout his outing and I think we are going to see more of this from Folty moving forward.

His final line was 5.1 IP, 5 H, 3 ER, 2 BB, 7 K on 101 pitches(64 strikes, 37 balls). Quality starts are never anything to be ashamed of. You’d like for him to not give up any home runs as that is something Mike has struggled with in the past. However, that’s going to happen against a team like the one he faced Tuesday.

What matters most is how you handle yourself on the mound and how you bounce back from that. Folty’s next start will tell us everything we need to know about his new mentality.