Spencer Schwellenbach Going Through First Braves Rough Patch at Bad Time

Let's be clear, there's no good time to go through a slump. That's true for hitters, pitchers and even managers.

It's also true that a vast majority of young players go through early big-league issues. Whether that's immediately, after several weeks or a little more than a year after debuting, it's practically inevitable.

Unfortunately for the Atlanta Braves, right-hander Spencer Schwellenbach is going through his first MLB rough patch when they desperately need him to be a stalwart in their rotation.

That's what Schwellenbach was in March and early April. Schwellenbach didn't allow a runner to reach second base in his first two starts. Then, he yielded only one run in his third outing.

But since then, Schwellenbach has posted a 7.17 ERA with a 4.51 FIP. The right-hander has also allowed opposing hitters to bat .312 with a .559 slugging percentage in his last 21.1 innings.

Chalk up the slump to Schwellenbach to being 24 years old with only 165 MLB innings. Last year, Braves pundits kept wondering whether the right-hander would hit a rough patch, but it never came. Schwellenbach pitched 123.2 innings as a rookie and only had one instance of back-to-back starts where he gave up four or more runs in each outing.

That's actually still the case this year. Schwellenbach has allowed six runs in two of his last four appearances, but they weren't consecutive starts. Overall, Schwellenbach is still pitching well. He owns a 3.92 ERA and 1.113 WHIP.

But the recent inconsistency should give the Braves less confidence with him on the mound going forward. That should be the case at least until he pulls himself out of this funk. The Braves have won just one of the last four games in which he started.

Schwellenbach should eventually pull himself out of this slump. Until then, though, the Braves can't really count on him to win a game all by himself, which is quite unfortunate. While Atlanta's offense has been better since the first week of the season, it's suddenly slumping again with a three-game losing streak entering Sunday night.

Without much offense, Schwellenbach had arguably the worst outing of his career Saturday, giving up eight hits and a walk. It was certainly his shortest outing of the season at 3.2 innings. He repeatedly gave up hard contract to the tough Los Angeles Dodgers lineup.

Still trying to climb their way back to .500, the Braves are hoping Schwellenbach's first MLB rough patch doesn't last much longer. With Spencer Strider and Reynaldo López out with injuries, the Braves need Schwellenbach to be the reliable starter he was last year and to begin this season