Recap: Shutdown pitching, big games from Harris and Olson give Braves 1st spring win

The Atlanta Braves put their foot on the gas early in this one as big games from Michael Harris II and Matt Olson plus some stellar pitching gave the Braves a big lead and Atlanta ended up cruising to a 7-

The pitching for the Braves was excellent to start the game as Max Fried pitched two scoreless innings with four strikeouts. He did get in a bit of trouble in the first inning with a single and a double back to back, but he retired the last two hitters without much difficulty. Spencer Strider followed Max (boy does it not seem fair to have those two guys go back to back) with two scoreless innings of his own with only a walk and a strikeout on his line. Strider was up to 98 on the stadium gun which seems good for a spring training debut appearance.

The Braves got the scoring started in a hurry. Matt Olson had an RBI double to score Ronald Acuna Jr. in the bottom of first after Ronnie led of the inning with a walk. A couple of batters later, Michael Harris laced a single to score Olson and the Braves had themselves a 2-0 lead. It was almost more as an Ozzie Albies single with two out had runners at the corners, but Eddie Rosario grounded into a force out to end the inning.

Ronald and Olson continued to torment the Blue Jays in the second inning with a pair of two out singles, but Toronto was able to strike out Austin Riley to snuff that out. However, the Braves would be able to get on the board again as Sena Murphy doubled to lead off the third and then Michael Harris immediately drove him home with an RBI triple. Harris would then score on a groundout and things quickly went sideways for the Blue Jays as a single, a wild pitch, a walk, an error, and a sac fly gave the Braves another run and it was 5-0 Braves.

After Raisel Iglesias pitched a clean fifth inning with pair of strikeouts, the Blue Jays found themselves with a more reasonable chance in the sixth inning when Lucas Luetge took the mound for the first time in a Braves uniform. Luetge gave up a pair of singles that had Toronto threatening with one out, but an inning ending double play kept the Braves lead at five.

The Braves got things cooking again in the bottom of the sixth after a bunch of the lineup regulars got pulled from the game. Justin Dean singled to lead off the inning and after he stole second base, Ehire Adrianza pushed him over to third on a single of his own. A bit of a fielding adventure in left off the bat of Chadwick Tromp led to Dean scoring and the Braves having runners on second and third with one out. Cody Milligan gave the Braves another run with a sac fly to make it 7-0 Braves. Braden Shewmake kept the inning going with a single to give Atlanta runners on the corners, but a Magneuris Sierra groundout ended the inning.

The rest of the game went by mostly without incident. Alan Rangel and Grant Holmes pitched scoreless innings of relief. Connor Johnston made things a little more interesting than they needed to be as he hit a batter and then gave up a single, but a strikeout followed by a double play ended the inning and gave the Braves their first win of the spring.