Atlanta Braves: Mike Soroka and Ender Inciarte Shine on Opening Day

The Atlanta Braves lost to the Mets and their two-time defending Cy Young winner. Here are the takeaways.

Atlanta Braves Mike Soroka lived up to the title of Opening Day starter and the ace of the club. He completed six innings in a video-game-like 69 pitches. The 22-year-old induced eight groundballs, struck out three while walking none, and allowing no earned runs.

Jacob deGrom was his usual self without the length today. In what would normally be a spring training game, deGrom got his work in against a hungry Braves team that is seeking a third-straight division title.

He went five innings and struck out eight while allowing one hit and one walk with no runs.

Atlanta Braves – Ender Inciarte is good at playing defense

Wow, does Ender Inciarte look healthy? Not only did he rob a potential homer from J.D. Davis but he managed to sprint to the gap in left-center to steal a double away from Jeff McNeil in the bottom of the sixth.

Soroka gave him a perfectly placed pitch, just a hair off the outside of the plate and McNeil gave it a ride in the gap between center and left, as a professional hitter would do. The only problem? Ender Inciarte is healthy and has a glove constructed of straight gold.

Ender showed that his diminished speed and range from last season – which resulted in negative defensive runs saved for the defensive wizard at the most difficult defensive position in the grass – were a result of his injuries and not anything else. He flew through the outfield to make a conspicuous impact on the game with his defense.

Enjoy this man while he is healthy and roaming centerfield because he is truly one of the best in the game at one of the most difficult positions to play.

Not much Offense

Yoenis Cespedes hit his first homer in over two years as the DH for the Mets. This came 734 days since his last appearance in a major-league game. He hit the homer deep to left field off of reliever Chris Martin and for some reason he was wearing batting gloves on both hands while still reserving a backup pair in his butt pocket.

Ronald Acuna Jr. went 1-4 with three strikeouts. Ozzie Albies was 0-4 but didn’t strikeout in the game.

The homer accounted for the only run scored in the 1-0 duel.

Atlanta Braves – Strikeouts

The Braves struck out 15 times compared to the Mets four. There were a lot of swings that appeared to have the ability to take players out of their cleats. It did not help that the Mets had the two-time defending Cy Young Award winner on the mound.

Austin Riley was able to lay off of several pitches out of the zone. This is a huge positive for Riley, as he was a worse hitter than Max Fried in the second half of last season. The bad part for Riley was that he still went 0-3 with three strikeouts while seemingly swinging at pitches with his head turned toward the cardboard cutouts down the leftfield line (when his eyes weren’t shut).

Marcell Ozuna managed to line a base hit in his debut as a Brave but he oftentimes looked like the pole in a rousing game of tetherball.

The Braves were shut out 1-0 by the Mets. Hopefully, the bats will come around. The pitching is usually ahead of the game in spring training and according to the timeline, that’s where we are. There are a lot of positives to take away from this game.

Keep in mind, the Braves were facing one of the best pitchers in the game.

It’s one game on an abbreviated summer camp. The pitching looked great. Mike Soroka was awesome. There’s a lot to look forward to.

Max Fried takes the mound Saturday for the Braves at 4:10 p.m. EST.