Mike Foltynewicz gave up two home runs and didn’t snap his losing streak Friday, but the Braves pitcher and his manager saw more pluses than minuses from the hard-throwing redhead in his first start of the new season.
Foltynewicz allowed three runs (two earned) including a pair of solo homers in five innings and got no decision in the 11-inning, 5-4 loss to the Phillies at SunTrust Park, stretching his winless streak to eight starts since early August.
He gave up five hits and one walk and had seven strikeouts, including three strikeouts in the second inning after Rhys Hoskins’ leadoff homer gave up the Phillies a 1-0 lead.
“I thought he did a great job,” Braves manager Brian Snitker said after Foltynewicz threw 57 strikes in 92 pitches, including two wild pitches. “His stuff was live, he was competing. It was a pretty good outing. He got the one curveball to (Carlos) Santana. But he was really good I thought.”
The Phillies added an unearned run in the third after J.P. Crawford reached on a catcher’s interference call against Kurt Suzuki. Santana’s two-out homer on a hanging curveball in the fifth tied the score, 3-3.
“They were two pitches that I wish I had back, but at the same time they were two solo shots,” Foltynewicz said. “That was a weird inning with the catcher’s interference and all that stuff. There were a couple of times where it could have got out of control, they could have broke it open a little, so keeping it to three runs in five innings, I thought that was a good job especially with that lineup and the way they’ve been patient hitting the ball.”
After losing all of his last seven starts in 2017, Foltynewicz averted a loss Friday that would’ve matched a franchise record of eight consecutive losses set by Preston Hanna in 1976-1978 and matched by Shelby Miller in 2105.
His last win was Aug. 5 at home against the Marlins, when “Folty” allowed just four hits and one run with a season-high 11 strikeouts and no walks in 6 1/3 innings. He went 0-7 with a 7.91 ERA in final seven starts of 2017, with only one homer allowed in that stretch but also just two quality starts (six innings or more and three earned runs or fewer).
He’s now 0-7 with a 7.34 ERA in his past eight starts and has pitched five innings or fewer in five of those games.
The Braves lost each of his first six starts of 2017, then won 13 of his next 16 starts with Foltynewicz going 10-2 with a 3.74 ERA in that 16-game stretch. That was followed by his season-ending losing skid.
