Atlanta Braves: Felix Hernandez makes opening statement to be in rotation

The Atlanta Braves got their first win of 2020 and Felix Hernandez made his opening statement to be in the team’s starting rotation on Saturday.

Game one of the 2020 season went about as well as one could hope for the Atlanta Braves. Their starters got on base and scored some runs and the pitching was lights out in a 5-0 win over the Baltimore Orioles.

Of course, this is the part where I tell you that spring training results are pretty much meaningless, but I’d much rather my team win than lose any day even if it ultimately means nothing.

Felix Hernandez got the Opening Day start in spring training and looked really good over two scoreless innings.

I do also have to stop and mention that the Braves were playing the worst team in baseball in the Baltimore Orioles who didn’t bring their starters. I consider myself a pretty well-informed baseball fan of all teams and I only recognized a couple of names on their team.

But still, King Felix looked really good on the mound and was able to keep hitters off-balance with a heavy amount of offspeed pitches.

That will be the key for King Felix this Spring and into the season if he makes the team. He has to be able to work in the zone with a lot of movement on his offspeed pitches.

I only saw him give up one hard-hit ball in two innings and it was because he fell behind in the count and had to come into a batter with a fastball. Luckily it went right to the center fielder.

His fastball is not good enough these days and something he’ll probably only throw 35-40 percent of the time.

It looked like he was battling command of his offspeed pitches in the second inning, which led to one walk — the only baserunner he allowed.

Overall, it was a solid first start for Felix Hernandez. But we’re going to need to see him string together three or four solid starts before we consider moving someone off the 40-man roster for him.

Other notes:

* Last year’s first-round pick for the Braves, Shea Langeliers, put on a show in his spring training debut with a hit in his first at-bat, and then he threw a bullet down to second base that would have nailed the runner had the second baseman not tripped over the bag.

* Tucker Davidson, my dark horse to make the Opening Day roster, breezed through two perfect innings on 18 pitches with a strikeout. He pounded the strike zone with the fastball (no radar gun on the telecast) and dropped in a nice breaking ball. I really hope he gets a start this Spring against a good lineup to see what he can do.

That’s it from game one of the spring training season. Check back every day as we give you our takeaways from each spring training game and who has a leg up in the roster battles.