Braves starting pitcher Spencer Strider was removed from Friday’s game at Citi Field after a lead-off walk in the fourth inning. Strider had allowed six earned runs on six hits over the game’s first three innings and there was a dramatic decrease in the right-hander’s fastball velocity.
“We saw the velocity was way down. We went out there and asked him if he was all right. He had shoulder and elbow soreness. That’s the extent of what I know right now,” Braves manager Walt Weiss said. “He’s gonna have images taken (Saturday) and everything, so we don’t know a whole lot, but obviously something wasn’t right. He didn’t look right that last inning, so that’s what the alarm bells went off when we started seeing upper 80s with his fastball.”
Strider was lifted after his 68th pitch of the game, an 82 mph slider in the first. He began the fourth inning facing Mets designated hitter MJ Melendez and throwing three straight fastballs, which clocked at 89, 90 and 88 mph respectively.
Weiss, pitching coach Jeremy Hefner and trainer George Poulis walked to the mound to check on the former All-Star.
“He just talked about his shoulder and elbow weren’t feeling very good. And he wasn’t even aware of the drop in velocity,” Weiss said. “At that point there’s no point to on. So we get him out of the game.
“It’s never good when a guy walks off the field, right? That’s usually not a good sign. But you never know, we’re gonna get the images taken, and we’ll see what they say, but it doesn’t look great as we stand here right now.”
Having missed the first month of the season with an oblique injury, Strider was making his eighth start of the season. He allowed back-to-back homers in the first inning, but his fastball reached 97 mph during that frame.
Strider also gave up a grand slam in the game’s second inning before pitching a scoreless third. But the fastball had dipped to 90 mph in the third before Strider returned to face the one batter in the fourth.
The 27-year-old Strider made two starts in the 2024 season before undergoing surgery for a torn ulnar collateral ligament in his right elbow.
“He’s been through a lot in the last few years trying to work his way back. And we’ve seen some glimpses of it. He’s done a nice job for us this year. There was a lot of hope — we saw him in (Los Angeles) in that outing in LA and he was just lights out and looked like old Spencer.
“These things are uneven a lot of times when you come back from injuries. He’s had a couple of elbow procedures, and sometimes these things are up and down. That’s usually the road back.”
Rookie right-hander JR Ritchie replaced Strider in the fourth inning with the Braves trailing the Mets 6-2. Ritchie threw five scoreless innings of relief in what would become a 7-5 Braves’ loss.
The 22-year-old Ritchie, who has made five starts for the Braves this, was recalled from Triple-A Gwinnett earlier this week to serve as a long-relief option — which he did Friday — but now may find himself in the rotation again if Strider lands on the injured list.
Ritchie said Friday he was unaware he was coming into the game because Strider had left because of a possible injury.
“It’s terrible, because Spencer’s a really great guy, great teammate. He’s been a great mentor to me,” Ritchie said. “I hate to see him go down. It’s just really unfortunate. He’s a really, really big part of this team and this organization. So seeing that is really unfortunate.”
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