Braves minor league recap: Mike Soroka makes his season debut and Vaughn Grissom picks up three hits

Tuesday saw the season debut of one of the more interesting and intriguing players in the Atlanta Braves organization, Mike Soroka. The former All Star threw 61 pitches and went 3 ⅔ innings in what is hopefully the first of many starts this season.

(2-2) Gwinnett Stripers 6, (3-1) Norfolk Tides 1

• Eli White - 1-5, 1 home run, 4 strikeouts
• Vaughn Grissom - 3-4, 1 double, 1 RBI
• Braden Shewmake - 1-5, 1 RBI, 2 strikeouts
• Mike Soroka, SP - 3 ⅔ IP, 4 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 0 BB, 3 K
• Winans RP - 4 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 9 K

Gwinnett took the lead on the second pitch of the game and never looked back. White drove a ball deep to left center into the bullpen off of DL Hall, one of the best lefty pitchers in the minors. Forrest Wall walked immediately after but was later picked off to end the inning. They put traffic on the bases in the second but were unable to capitalize on first and second due to a Hoy Park pop out and Justin Dean strikeout. In the third they tacked on two more via a Shewmake single which scored Wall and Grissom. The bats went quiet over the next two innings before erupting for three in the sixth. They led off the inning with Yolmer Sanchez and Joe Hudson walks before Hoy Park drove one in on a single. Later on, in the inning Wall and Grissom each hit RBI singles. From there on though the bats remained relatively stagnant getting just 1 hit over the next three innings.

From the pitching side Mike Soroka showed some encouraging signs as he generated nine swinging strikes. He allowed some hard contact but was able to escape only allowing 1 run which came in the second inning from a Ryan O’Hearn home run. Soroka threw 61 pitches on the night, 37 of which were strikeouts. He was able to roll a 6-4-3 double play in the first inning which helped keep his pitch count down. Matt Swarmer came in to relieve Soroka and pitched well over the course of an inning and a third striking out 2 and walking 1, which included getting former big leaguer Lewin Diaz to fly out to right. From there on Allan Winans came on to pitch the final four innings. He struck out nine batters and did not allow a single. The only base runner to reach against him came via a fielding error by himself. Winans likely would have given up a run later on in that inning had it not been for a fantastic diving catch from center fielder Eli White which ended the frame.