Schwellenbach Sets Career High in Strikeouts but Focus Is on Other Stats

Spencer Schwellenbach dominated for the Atlanta Braves once again in the 6-1 win over the Phillies on Saturday. He struck out a career-high 12 batters in the winning effort. He had a solid pitch mix, picking up at least one strikeout with four different pitches in his arsenal.

He's not looking to pick up strikeouts. That's not the game he's aiming to have, but he's had four double-digit strikeout games, tied with Chris Sale for the most on the team. Nobody else has had more than one game with double-digit punchouts this season.

Schwellenbach said that a lot situations put him in a spot to pick up a strikeout, but not every ideal pitch to get an out will lead to strikeout.

"It's kind of nice. I'm just taking the game as it is.," he said. "Whether it's out. Whether it's before two strikes, I'm gonna go get that out. I'm not chasing swing and miss, I'm chasing weak contact. In some games, you get to two strikes early and get them fishing on something but other times, you get to two strikes and there's a pitch that's available that might not be the strikeout pitch, but it's an open pitch for an out."

This approach has allowed Schwellenbach to be efficient and rack up innings this season. He's now leading all of Major League Baseball with 110 2/3 innings pitched. It's allowed him to pitch a complete game this season. He's the only Braves pitcher to have done it, though Sale came as close as you can get without actually getting there.

The strikeouts are great, but innings are one of the top stats that Schwellenbach takes the most pride in being a leader in.

"It's huge," he said. "The innings are probably the most important thing to me, and walks. If you can limit baserunners, you're gonna have less pitches per inning, and it's gonna let you go deeper into games. Especially when we can give our bullpen a rest. That's always a big thing.

His seven-inning outing came off the bullpen needing to cover seven innings the night before. The role reversal was great for giving the relief corps the night off.

Schwellenbach now has a 3.09 ERA and 0.96 WHIP in 17 starts this season.

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