The Braves didn’t really intend to make Thursday afternoon’s exhibition contest in Tampa a competitive one — they sent a bunch of backups as their position player contingent, gave Carlos Carrasco the start, and had a pitching slate of “guys who complete innings because the regular crew can’t add a full month of workload to their ledgers and hope to survive the season.”
It went basically as expected against a lineup that started with a bunch of Yankees regulars.
Carlos Carrasco was, well, kind of what you’d expect against a lineup with a bunch of Yankees regulars. He walked Aaron Judge, gave up a cheapie lofted-down-the-line homer to Jazz Chisholm Jr., and then got knocked around, ball-in-play variety. The Braves lifted him when it was 4-0 and fill-in Schay Schanaman was greeted with another double that made it 5-0.
Carrasco actually came back to pitch a clean second, where he struck out Judge on an ABS-confirmed changeup that was very plainly in the zone. Still, it wasn’t exactly a resurgent outing for the veteran, given the 1/1 K/BB ratio, the early exit, and the fact that was mostly just tossing it over to get whacked in his first inning of work.
The rest of the Atlanta pitching slate was pretty boring: Elieser Hernandez, Taylor Scott, Austin Pope, and Anthony Molina. Hernandez ate three innings, striking out just one batter (but walking none), though he was taken deep by Paul Goldschmidt. A few innings later, Spencer Jones absolutely obliterated Austin Pope’s mislocated 93 mph four-seamer for a majestic 400-plus-foot blast to right. All in all, Atlanta pitching had just a 4/2 K/BB ratio and got tagged for three longballs — but none of these guys are really in the running to make the roster or serve as anything other than emergency depth in 2026, so whatever.
Offensively, the Atlanta backups-slash-fringy-guys-that-maybe-make-the-roster-if-someone-else-gets-hurt at least had a few nice moments. Nacho Alvarez Jr. knocked in a couple with a hard-hit grounder double down the right-field line. Ben Gamel absolutely unloaded on a pitch from Camilo Doval for a no-doubter solo shot. Chadwick Tromp reached base twice (though he was thrown out — maybe — trying to stretch his hit into a double). Yankees pitching put together an 11/1 K/BB ratio, which isn’t necessarily surprising given the lineup the Braves sent over to Tampa.
Tomorrow, the Braves will host the Red Sox, and the newly-sworded Chris Sale will get another tune-up against his erstwhile club.
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