Recapping Spring Training games is always weird. They are, after all, the exhibition game fan’s exhibitions, especially when the calendar still displays “February.” So, here’s a list of maybe-relevant or interesting things that happened during this afternoon’s game against the Detroit Tigers.
The most notable thing was that Touki Toussaint had a rough outing. Reports indicated that he was throwing 90 to 92 mph during his inning of work, notably below the 93-94 that he showcased at the major league level last year. For his trouble, Toussaint’s inning went like this: hit by pitch, groundball single, groundball single, bases-loaded walk, three-run homer by Braves’ castoff Dustin Peterson, double, strikeout, lineout to center, strikeout on a would-be wild pitch with the throw going to first to retire the side. Not exactly the best outing. But hey! It’s Spring Training! It doesn’t matter! There’s no real indication (nor any reason to think) that Toussaint was specifically out there trying to retire batters rather than working on something specific. For all we know, it wasn’t incidentally diminished velocity, it was purposefully-diminished velocity to see what he could do holding back a bit. There’s no way to know, at least not without some kind of additional information. So, don’t sweat it. It’s fine.
The Braves didn’t manage to score anything off of Detroit starter Matt Moore for the first two innings, but Pedro Florimon tagged him for a two-run homer in the third. The Braves nearly got some more in the same frame after Moore’s departure, but after two consecutive one-out singles from Ozzie Albies and Freddie Freeman, Tyler Flowers lashed a hard grounder to first that ended up being a double play.
The Tigers continued to pound the ball, as Willi (not a typo) Castro homered off of Sam Freeman in the fourth. Ian Anderson had himself a not-super-great inning in the seventh, as a walk and two singles pushed the Tigers’ seventh and final run across the plate.
In the bottom of the seventh, the Braves’ reserves pulled off some high-octane, vintage Barving of the Class A variety. Detroit pitcher Eduardo Paredes walked the bases loaded with none out, but then struck out Drew Waters and got a double play ball off the bat of Andres Blanco to end the inning. Then, weirdly enough, the exact same set-up happened again in the bottom of the ninth, with a different Eduardo (Eduardo Jimenez this time) allowing a leadoff single and then walking the next two guys. This time, however, the Braves actually got some runs, as Waters hit an RBI groundout instead of striking out, Andres Blanco hit a sacrifice fly instead of rolling into an inning-ending double play, and then the Slugbear himself, Drew Lugbauer, mauled a pitch into right field for a two-run homer that brought the Braves to within a run. But, as inconsequentially as possible, Alex Jackson grounded out to end the game.
In terms of relevant pitchers, Jonny Venters and Jesse Biddle each threw scoreless frames. In terms of potentially irrelevant (or irreverent) pitchers, Connor Johnstone, Jordan Harrison, and Jose Rafael de Paula threw scoreless frames as well. Only Toussaint, Sam Freeman, and Ian Anderson yielded runs for the Braves on the day. On the hitting side, Ozzie Albies collected two hits, A.J. Graffanino had a perfect day with a single and a walk, and Adam Duvall racked up an 0-for-3 but at least made contact all three times up. Again, none of this really matters! It’s just a recap of stuff that happened.
Stay tuned for tomorrow, when more stuff will happen as the Blue Jays come to Orlando for the Braves’ first contest in March 2019.