Braves rout Marlins for first win, with Spencer Schwellenbach again pitching like an ace

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ATLANTA — Seldom has an 0-7 team felt as good about its chances to win a game as the Braves did before their home opener Friday against the Miami Marlins.

Not so much because they had won seven of eight home openers since moving to Truist Park. Nor because they had a better record against Miami than against any other team since the Marlins began play in 1993, including 48-20 at Truist before Friday.

No, this confidence was from having Spencer Schwellenbach on the mound, and his Braves teammates knowing they probably needed only two or three runs to get a win, provided the bullpen could hold a lead if Schwellenbach did what they’ve come to expect.

There was also the fact that Braves hitters felt overdue to break out after a week-long slump and get some hits with runners in scoring position.

But mostly, Schwellenbach.

The second-year pitcher is that good already, and showed it again Friday, firing eight dominant innings of two-hit ball with no walks and 10 strikeouts in a 10-0 Braves rout that assured they wouldn’t threaten any franchise records for futility to start a season.

Scoring lots of runs 😁#BravesCountry pic.twitter.com/kmW8O7XJgT

— Atlanta Braves (@Braves) April 5, 2025

The Braves scored three runs in the third inning against starter Max Meyer, including Marcell Ozuna’s two-run double, and stretched the lead to 5-0 in the seventh with consecutive homers from Ozuna and Matt Olson off George Soriano, the first of the season for each and first back-to-back jacks for the Braves.

“We knew it was coming,” Schwellenbach said of the 16-hit offensive outburst from a team that had hit .151 with a .485 OPS.  “We’ve got a really good team, a lot of really good bats, and it was just a matter of time before we started getting it going.

“Regardless of us being 0-7, we don’t really care. What’s in the past is in the past. You can’t change anything about that. And coming home is nice. To come home and sleep in our own beds and have 40-some thousand fans behind us — we’re gonna get this going.”

Olson had a two-run single in the five-run eighth on a night when the Braves scored just four runs fewer than their total from the previous seven games.

“We did a lot of good things all around, really,” Olson said, smiling. “My mom wants to take credit a little bit. She calls herself the team mom. She made Rice Krispies Treats for us because she thinks that always gives us a spark. She’s done it a few times. So I just saw her out in the tunnel; she’s taking credit for it.

“But it really was, it was a good win. It was good driving in today, playing a home game in front of the fans. And Schwelly gave us just steadiness on the mound, gave us a little time to work some at-bats, get some runs, and then obviously we blew it open a little bit at the end.”

Schwellenbach retired the first 14 batters he faced and 10 of the last 11, facing two batters of the minimum for eight innings.

“We had a hard road trip, and today was the best chance for us to show who we are,” Ozuna said. “Especially that guy (Schwellenbach), he’s a young talent. Hopefully he can stay healthy and continue to do what he’s doing right now.”

Olson said of Schwellenbach, “I was saying before the game, I think he’s one of the top arms in the game, and it’s just smooth sailing for him tonight. Had all his stuff working. I think it was, what, 99 pitches and like 24 balls? Not a lot of hard contact. That’s tough to do, and it’s just how he operates. It’s calm and collected the whole time, and he’s got good stuff to go along with it.”

Schwellenbach and rookie catcher Drake Baldwin greeted each other as they got to the dugout after the eighth, Schwellenbach being showered with applause — a standing ovation from a sellout crowd of 41,583.

“Yeah, that was awesome,” Schwellenbach said. “You don’t get that very often, and to have that is really cool.”

Baldwin said, “Yeah, super cool. All the credit goes to him. He went out there and did it. But just being back there and watching him work, it was fun today.”

Schwellenbach, a former college shortstop, is 24 and never pitched a full season as a starter at any level before last season. But he is not pitching like a future MLB ace; he’s pitching like a current ace.

In two starts this season, he’s allowed just three hits and one walk with 14 strikeouts in 14 scoreless innings.

“He’s gonna have hiccups every now and then,” manager Brian Snitker said. “But he’s got that ability — we’ve seen already in a young career — to step up when you need him. You know what? We needed him tonight. He did enough his first start to not let that (losing streak) get this far, too. Just like he did last year.”

Snitker added, “What Spence can do for us is huge, especially after we get the other Spencer back.”

That would be Spencer Strider, the 2023 MLB strikeouts and wins leader, who is nearing the end of his year-long rehabilitation from internal-brace surgery. Strider made his second rehab start for Triple-A Gwinnett on Friday and pitched 5 1/3 hitless and scoreless innings with two walks and eight strikeouts.

For Schwellenbach, Friday was his third career double-digit strikeout game and first since he had 10 with no walks in seven innings of an Aug. 2 win against the Marlins. He gave up three runs and two homers and got no decision in that game. On Friday, the Marlins didn’t even advance a runner to second base against him.

Earlier Friday, veteran Chris Sale, the 2024 NL Cy Young Award winner, said Schwellenbach already was one of the best pitchers in baseball. Snitker was asked about Sale’s comment.

“I would agree with that,” Snitker said a few hours before the game. “From what (Schwellenbach) has done since he’s been here, the lineups he’s went through and had to navigate, the big games that he’s won for us and what he has done in a short period of time, I would agree with that.”

The Marlins would probably concur. They came in with a 4-3 record and an offense ranked in the top half of the majors in batting average, OBP, walks and runs scored, but they were completely controlled by Schwellenbach.

Good to be home. #BravesCountry pic.twitter.com/dnLnk17QNI

— Atlanta Braves (@Braves) April 5, 2025

The Braves had only four other starts as bad as 0-7 in modern franchise history since 1900, and were three losses shy of the franchise-record 0-10 start in 1988. Many of the Braves have read or heard that no 0-7 team has ever gone on to advance to the postseason, but they also believe they have the talent to be the first.

The team’s game notes stated 61 teams have had losing streaks of seven or more games and advanced to the postseason since the wild-card era began in 1995, including the Kansas City Royals and Cleveland Guardians last season. The Braves advanced to the playoffs in years in which they had skids of 11 games (1982), nine games (2010) and eight games (2012).

Now, they’ll try to do it in a season that started with seven consecutive losses at San Diego and Los Angeles.

“Everybody knows who we are,” Ozuna said. “And everybody knows sometimes you’re hot, sometimes you’re cold. On the road, we were cold — and the weather was cold. Nothing better than to be home.”

Especially with Schwellenbach on the mound.

(Photo: Kevin C. Cox / Getty Images)

This news was originally published on this post .

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