Atlanta Braves: What to expect from Austin Riley in final week

The Atlanta Braves rookie finds himself with an opportunity to prove he is worthy of a spot on the 2019 postseason roster.

Atlanta Braves rookie, Austin Riley broke onto the scene in a big way as he just wouldn’t stop hitting the ball. The first two weeks of the season saw Riley bat .389 and he finished his first full month at the .293 mark.

That surge of power earned Riley Rookie of the Month honors in May of 2019. He slugged 11 homers and drove in 31 runs in that time frame.

It didn’t look like anyone could find a way to get him out at the plate.

It looked as if Atlanta was poised for yet another phenomenal season from a rookie. Unfortunately, things did not pan out that way as Austin slumped hard the next 20 games.

The young third baseman turned left fielder had just 14 hits including 5 homers and 10 RBI over those next 20 games. He would strike out 30 times in that stretch as well.

This struggle continued after the All-Star break before he was injured during a routine workout in Minnesota.

The injury to Riley’s knee didn’t require surgery but he missed a good month of the season. Austin looked at this opportunity as a blessing in disguise and hoped it would help him get back on track.

However, since his return, it’s been more of the same as he’s struggled to get on base and continues to be behind in the count early on in at-bats. With his limited opportunities, Riley has hit .148 since returning to the big league roster.

Definitely not the kind of return he or fans were hoping for. This has led many fans to the conclusion that Austin Riley will not make the postseason roster.

Although, with the recent news of Freddie Freeman dealing with bone spurs in his right elbow, the Atlanta Braves rookie will get an opportunity to show if he deserves to be on the postseason roster.

I expect that you will see an extremely motivated Austin Riley get some starts at first base. He’s definitely got the talent to perform at the MLB level. It’s going to be his ability to lay off sliders early in the count to get himself back on track.

For example, when Riley is in a 2-1 count his batting average sits at .300 but when he is behind in the count, a .102 average is the result.

So, that is something to look for in the next few days as Riley gets an opportunity to play for a postseason spot. If he’s able to just work the count to his favor and start getting on base more, he has a shot.

I was encouraged to see him hit an opposite-field home run off of Aaron Nola last week. It was his first homer since August 2 but he barrelled the ball and sent it deep to right field. Definitely shows me his starting to figure something out with his swing.

When Riley is able to get on top of a fastball, it goes a long way. It seems that he just couldn’t time fastballs well during this long slump. That, unfortunately, comes from having to swing defensively due to being behind in the count and protecting against the breaking ball.

If he can try and be patient and show opposing pitching that he isn’t going to bite on sliders off the plate, he’s going to get more pitches he can handle and be able to sit on the fastball more often.

We know that Austin Riley is able to flourish at this level and he’s got a perfect opportunity to remind everyone why he belongs here.