Atlanta Braves right-hander Spencer Strider is standing firm in his belief that the club will turn things around despite a 5-13 start to the season.
"We're not in a great position at the moment, and that's fine," Strider told reporters following Wednesday's loss to the Toronto Blue Jays. "It's early still in the season, and people want to doubt us, that's great. Bring it on. And if we're going to lose every game for the rest of the season, we're going to do it the right way. We're going to do it grinding it out. That much I can guarantee you."
Strider made his long-awaited return to a major-league mound after internal brace surgery to repair his right ulnar collateral ligament last April. The 26-year-old allowed two runs on five hits with one walk and five strikeouts across five innings. His average fastball velocity of 95.4 mph was more than one mile per hour slower than when he last took the mound.
"My job isn't to come back and have a moment and all that," Strider said, according to MLB.com's Mitch Bannon. "That's not how I look at it. I'm here to help the team."
The Braves have struggled offensively, ranking 21st in the league with a .674 OPS this season. Atlanta's team OPS has fallen from a league-best .845 in 2023 to .724 last season, which was good for 12th in MLB.
"We gotta play better. There’s no secret to that," Braves first baseman Matt Olson said, according to Justin Toscano of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. "Sure, we got a lot of games left, but we can’t do this shit forever. We gotta find a way to start playing better baseball all the way around."
The Braves will look to get things on track when they play host to the Minnesota Twins for a three-game series in Atlanta, which begins Friday night.
