Tonight has not gone well for the Atlanta Braves as they’re currently in a deep hole against the New York Mets in the opening game of this weekend series. They could be dealing with some more injury woes to their core players as Spencer Strider exited tonight’s game with trainer George Poulis following a concerning velocity drop.
Strider’s fastball was down to around 88-mph — a significant drop from his usual velocity of 95-mph so far this season. Following a disastrous three innings of work (including six runs given up on two dingers hit by Bo Bichette and one from Juan Soto), his efforts on the mound prompted a mound visit from both Walt Weiss and George Poulis and a visibly-frustrated Strider agreed to leave the game due to the issues that he was dealing with.
Hopefully it’s nothing serious but at the same time, it’s tough to not be alarmed when you consider what was going on with his velocity once he was making his exit. We’ll update this post with any new developments so stay tuned.
UPDATE [10:16 p.m. ET]: The Braves are calling it “right arm soreness” for Strider as the cause for his exit. It’s vague but that’s also not the type of catch-all that you want to see. Let’s continue to hope for the best.
UPDATE [post-game]: Per Chad Bishop of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Walt Weiss relayed the message from Spencer Strider that he was feeling both “shoulder and elbow” soreness out there. Needless to say, that ain’t good!
