Atlanta Braves spring training: Kyle Wright has strong first showing

As the battle for the fifth spot in the Atlanta Braves starting rotation continues this Spring, Kyle Wright made a good first impression as the Braves and Twins finish in a 4-4 tie.

It was a good day for Atlanta Braves pitching on Tuesday as both Mike Foltynewicz and Kyle Wright looked sharp in their first outings of the Spring.

For Folty it was good just to see him get back out on the mound and get the bad taste from Game 5 out of his mouth.

I had to listen to this one on the radio again, but it sounded like Folty used his entire repertoire in this one. In fact, it sounded like he was throwing a lot of breaking stuff and throwing it well with 3 strikeouts in his 2 innings pitched.

The only hit he allowed was a towering home run to one of the Minnesota Twins top prospects, Trevor Larnach.

As for Kyle Wright, he came on in the fourth inning after Will Smith threw a perfect third inning.

The first batter he faced hit a line drive to center that Ender Inciarte made a great diving play on to catch.

He then got Miguel Sano to pop out before Larnach singled. And then Dansby Swanson made a pretty good play to snatch a line drive to end the inning.

It was a much cleaner fifth inning for Wright who picked up 2 strikeouts in a 1-2-3 frame.

Again, no TV today so it’s really hard to judge just how good he was — and apparently this new state-of-the-art ballpark forgot to install a radar gun.

But from what I could tell through the radio, Wright was very sharp with his pitches and pounded the strike zone, which is what you want to see from your pitchers early in spring training.

I think it’s pretty safe to assume that Kyle Wright is the favorite to earn the fifth spot in the rotation — and possibly the fourth spot depending on how Sean Newcomb looks.

Other game notes: 

* Shea Langeliers continues to impress early in Spring as he smashed a 2-run home run in the 7th inning. We already know the defense is there for Langy, but if he continues to show improvement at the plate he could move up the Braves’ system really quickly.

https://twitter.com/Braves/status/1232431030323306497

* Austin Riley, who looked really good defensively in his last game at third, stepped it up with the bat in this game picking up a hit on a couple of hard-hit balls.

* It was not a great showing for Marcell Ozuna in his first game as a Braves player going 0-3 with 2 strikeouts. Even Braves radio announce Greg Olson said Ozuna looked like he was off in this one (or something to that degree), which is to be expected in his first action of the Spring.

* Shane Greene and Chad Sobotka appeared to struggle in their outings today. Greene got bailed out with a nicely turned double-play, but Sobotka wasn’t as lucky as he gave up a run on 3 walks and a hit batter.

* Acuna did Acuna things:

The Braves will be back on TV (MLB Network) Wednesday as they take on the Baltimore Orioles. Newcomb is expected to make his 2020 spring training debut.