It was the second chance this season for Tucker Davidson to make a good impression on Braves officials and teammates, to show he was ready to help the team win. And the left-hander made the most of the opportunity.
A 19th-round draft pick who pitched just 7 2/3 innings in the majors before Thursday, Davidson looked like someone who belonged and knew it while limiting the Washington Nationals to one hit in 5 2/3 scoreless innings of a 5-1 win that gave the Braves a split of a four-game series at Truist Park.
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Dansby Swanson and Ozzie Albies each collected his 500th career hit and drove in two runs — Swanson on a homer that extended his hitting streak to 12 games — and Austin Riley made a run-saving defensive play and had the other big hit in a four-run sixth inning against veteran lefty Patrick Corbin.
Although Davidson did issue five walks, he also had five strikeouts, made big pitches when he needed, and displayed a slider that’s been a difference-maker for him since he began to focus on developing it at the team’s request last spring.
“He was really good, just like the last time,” said manager Brian Snitker, referring to Davidson’s season debut May 18 against the Mets, when he allowed five hits, three runs and one walk with five strikeouts in six innings. “His stuff was live, he was throwing strikes. His slider has become a real pitch for him. He was very aggressive all day. Just threw a lot of strikes, very impressive outing.”
Davidson mixed well-located 91-95 mph fastballs with a good curveball, 85-89 mph sliders and slipped in one changeup. He threw 51 strikes in 88 pitches and worked quickly, with the kind of pace teammates love and opposing hitters often try to disrupt.
“Amazing,” Albies said of Davidson, a 25-year-old Texan born and raised in Amarillo. “He gets the ball and goes after hitters, and that’s what we like. Just have your confidence and go out there, let the guys hit the ball and we’ve got defense for him. He believes in what he can do, and he just goes and attacks all the hitters.”
Swanson said, “Tucker Davidson was fantastic today. Really proud of him. It was huge for us.”
Making the most of opportunities and being aggressive. Those have become Davidson mantras.
“Yeah, that’s all I’m trying to do,” he said. “I’m trying to go up there and attack hitters, give us a chance to win every fifth day or whenever I can. Just kind of keeping the momentum rolling if I’m here or if I’m in Gwinnett, just continue to get better each outing.
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“Because it’s a long season, and I know the way this game works is that we’re going to need all 40 guys on the 40-man roster at some point this year. So whenever my opportunity calls, just be ready.”
He has a 0.90 ERA in three starts at Triple-A Gwinnett, with 23 strikeouts and four walks in 20 innings and his only runs coming on a pair of solo homers.
Davidson was the Braves’ choice all along to make a spot start in this series.
Many outside the organization were surprised when it was announced late Wednesday that Davidson would start Thursday and not Bryse Wilson, since Wilson was on schedule to start that day at Gwinnett. But the Braves had already made the decision in advance.
They had planned to start Davidson in the series opener Monday, but a rainout Friday against the Mets pushed the rotation plans back a day. Then he was to start Tuesday, but another rainout Sunday at New York altered plans again.
The Braves decided to push back their most consistent starter, Ian Anderson, from the series finale against the Nationals to Friday’s opener of a much-anticipated series against the Los Angeles Dodgers before what are expected to be packed houses all weekend at Truist Park.
And so, Thursday was the day for Davidson. And man, was he ready.
He didn’t give up a hit until Jody Mercer’s single in the fifth inning, which followed a leadoff walk by Victor Robles. With two on and none out, Davidson struck out the next two batters before getting Trea Turner on an inning-ending groundout that kept the game scoreless.
It’s a far different story from last year, when Davidson was charged with three hits, seven runs (two earned) and four walks in 1 2/3 innings of his major-league debut, a September start against Boston. He said he’s become more comfortable with each of his three MLB games, and credited familiarity with catcher William Contreras, whom he’s pitched to frequently at various levels of pro ball.
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“He knew what I wanted to do and I knew what I wanted to do, so we were on the same page for most of the day,” Davidson said. “I didn’t really have to shake much (change pitches Contreras signaled). I maybe shook once or twice, and it was more just playing with the hitters’ heads, just kind of giving them a fake shake and then we’d go from there. But we were on the same page.
“That relationship we’ve built throughout the minor leagues is really paying off now.”
So is the slider he’s improved significantly since a year ago.
“It’s come so far. Even since quarantine of last year when I was really trying to work on it, trying to find the shape and then add the velo to it,” he said. “It’s become a real weapon for me, it helps me get into counts when the curveball’s not there yet, or if the fastball’s not there. It just allows me to use it behind in the count, or 3-2, or even a put-away pitch. It’s just such a weapon for me, and I’m still learning how to use it each outing. I can’t wait to see where it goes.”
Swanson’s resurgence
After the Braves’ first 42 games, when Swanson hit .201 with a .615 OPS and struck out more than once every three at-bats, the shortstop’s name was no longer among those mentioned in social media discussions regarding potential contract extensions for Atlanta.
But in two weeks, he’s done a lot to remind folks of why he was a No. 1 draft pick six years ago — and of what he did just a year ago during the shortened MLB season, when Swanson hit .274 with 10 homers and a career-best .809 OPS in 60 games and looked like a player the Braves might want to sign long-term.
Right now he looks like that again. Granted, it’s only been a 12-game stretch over 16 days, but Swanson looks like a different hitter from how he did in the first 6 1/2 weeks of this season.
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His two-run homer capped a four-run sixth inning that propelled the Braves to a much-needed win against the last-place Nationals before the formidable Dodgers come calling Friday.
The homer off Corbin was Swanson’s 10th of the season and second in as many days, and came in his and the Braves’ 54th game, one-third of the way through the season. It extended his personal-best hitting streak to 12 games, during which he’s hit .362 with five doubles, five homers, 10 RBIs and a 1.152 OPS.
His latest homer was to left-center field, and Swanson has stayed between the gaps much more during his streak than earlier, when he was pulling balls and striking out excessively. He’s had four extra-base hits to the opposite (right) field in his last 12 games, after having only five in the first 42 games.
“I’ve just been working my tail off. Really have,” Swanson said after Wednesday night’s game, when he missed having a two-homer night by a foot or less on a fly ball caught at the top of the wall. “Just kind of gotten back to what’s made me successful (before) and really just tried to be intentional with my work every day. Really trying to put the quality in, and just have a lot of focus on the things that I do that made me successful last year.
“Some of that stems from just routine stuff, kind of getting back into the right routine, what fits me. I’m a very rhythm-oriented person, so sometimes I have to do things to get myself back into rhythm. I think for about the last two weeks I’ve been able to find that routine and rhythm that’s been working for me.”
Swanson has struck out eight times in 47 at-bats during the hitting streak, after whiffing a whopping 54 times in 154 at-bats in the first 42 games.
“Dansby’s been working extremely hard at cutting down strikeouts and the whole thing, his swing,” Snitker said. “He’s down there in that cage working tirelessly to do that. I have a lot of respect for Dansby because he takes a lot of pride in that. He didn’t like the strikeouts, but he’s working to alleviate things, and you forget that this kid’s got some serious power. As we saw today.
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“And again, he’s not a finished product either. He’s still learning. This is a hard, hard game to play, and there’s always something to learn, the next page to turn. That’s the one good thing about this club — we’re fighting to get to where we want to go, and these guys, every day is as consistent a work ethic and determination that I’ve ever seen in a group.”
Swanson, who led major-league shortstops with nine defensive runs saved in 2020, is tied for fifth in home runs among an unusually power-laden group of NL shortstops this season, paced by the Padres’ San Diego’s Fernando Tatis Jr. with 16 and the Cubs’ Javier Báez with 14.
Swanson has more homers than the combined totals of Colorado shortstop Trevor Story (five) and Mets shortstop Francisco Lindor (four).
He’s on pace for 30 homers in 162 games, which would nearly match the combined amount from Swanson’s two biggest home-run seasons — 17 homers in 127 games in 2019 and 14 homers in 136 games in 2018, when he was hampered by a wrist ailment that kept him out of the postseason and eventually required surgery.
He didn’t fully regain the strength in his wrist for another year, and last season Swanson showed what he’s capable of with good health. He’s showing it again now, after a rough start to this season. That wasn’t health-related, but seemed more about trying to do too much, trying everything possible to break out of a slump and ending up, as Braves great Chipper Jones said, slowed beneath “paralysis by analysis — overanalysis.”
If Swanson’s abrupt turnaround caught some observers by surprise, his teammates expected it at some point.
“He’s a guy that works, and he believes,” Albies said of his middle-infield partner. “It’s a matter of time before he starts clicking and starts rolling. That’s him. He keeps believing in himself, believes and works on his swing, and it’s working for him.”
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Swanson has played every game since the beginning of the 2020 season and has 20 homers in those 114 contests.
“I’ve seen him before, he’s always had it,” Snitker said of the home-run stroke. “He’s in the process of learning to hit. He made adjustments to hit the slider better. It’s crazy, there will be times where they throw fastballs up and in on him, and I don’t know how he keeps them fair, and he’d hit em out. The power’s always been there and he’s learning to hit.’
“You want him out there (every game) because of the defense that he brings. And when you do that and you just keep racking up at-bats, you end up learning to hit and you gain by that.”
Albies feels right from right side
The Braves faced their second consecutive lefty starting pitcher Thursday (Corbin) and will face two more Friday and Saturday against the Dodgers, and no one feels better about that than Albies.
“Yeah, amazing. I love it,” said Albies, a switch-hitting dynamo who’s been scorching lately from the right side, his natural side.
He has 13 hits in his past 25 at-bats against lefties, seven for extra bases. His 3-for-4 performance Thursday included first- and sixth-inning singles off Corbin and a seventh-inning RBI double off lefty Sam Clay.
“He kind of struggled a little bit when we first saw (lefties earlier this season), but now he’s right back,” Snitker said. “Like I’ve said, if there’s a better hitter against left-handed pitching in baseball, I don’t know who it is.”
Before Thursday, Albies’ .340 career average against lefties was sixth best in the majors since his debut in 2017.
“Feeling good, feeling awesome,” Albies said of the current state of his right-handed swing.
The Dodgers will start lefties Julio Urías on Friday and Clayton Kershaw on Saturday before right-hander and reigning NL Cy Young winner Trevor Bauer starts Sunday’s series finale.
(Photo of Tucker Davidson: Todd Kirkland / Getty Images)
