DENVER -- Braves starting pitcher AJ Smith-Shawver left Tuesday’s 8-2 win vs. the Rockies at Coors Field in the sixth inning after being hit in the right arm by a 105.3 mph line drive off the bat of Ryan McMahon. Smith-Shawver recovered to field the ball and throw McMahon out at first but left the game immediately afterward.
“It got the meaty part of my arm, so we'll see what happens tomorrow,” Smith-Shawver said after the game. “But for right now, I'm feeling pretty good.”
Smith-Shawver had a 7-1 lead when he left with one out and one on. The runner came around to score two batters later, leaving Smith-Shawver with two runs -- both earned -- over 5 1/3 innings on 59 pitches, 46 for strikes. He walked one and struck out five, as it was enough for his first win of the season and the second of his career.
“My splitter was not listening to what I wanted it to do, but it was still getting swing-and-miss today,” Smith-Shawver said. “I was throwing some slider-splitters that I haven't seen before. But if it works, it works.”
The 22-year-old right-hander was recalled from Triple-A Gwinnett earlier Tuesday to make a spot start against the Rockies. He was 0-2 with a 4.61 ERA (seven earned runs over 13 2/3 innings) in three starts before being optioned to Triple-A on April 13, and with Tuesday’s win over the Rockies, he’s allowed three or fewer runs in all four of his starts in 2025.
“He threw a lot of strikes, obviously, and moves the ball around,” manager Brian Snitker said. “He was a little bit hard to hit, because he was mixing his pitches and moving it around pretty good.”
Snitker had no doubt that Smith-Shawver had earned another round in the rotation, pending the status of his arm’s response to treatment after absorbing the line drive.
“We'll see how he feels,” Snitker said. “He's good. He'll get an extra day, and he’ll be scheduled to throw Monday now.”
Smith-Shawver had one previous win since his big-league debut in 2023, a win over the Rockies in Atlanta on June 15, 2023. His 5 1/3 innings pitched were the most since starting against Colorado in 2023, and it’s the third time in his career he’s pitched into the sixth inning.
“He's got the pitches, his stuff's good," Snitker said before the game. “It's just about throwing strikes and commanding your fastball and hitting your spots, and that's what pitching is all about. He's a young guy with good stuff that's getting on-the-job training here at the Major League level.”
Smith-Shawver’s strong outing left the Braves in position to sweep the Rockies in Wednesday’s series finale, and doing so would put them at .500 for the first time this season.
“We're always coming in with sweep as a goal,” said Matt Olson, who collected a season-high three hits Tuesday, with three runs and a double to extend his on-base streak to 17 games. “The .500 number, honestly, it's kind of whatever. We want to win as many games as possible. Hopefully pretty soon, we'll be on the positive side of that and not look back.”
The Braves came out of the gate 0-7 after a hapless trip through San Diego and L.A. to open the season, and Olson credited an off day before the home opener and a 10-0 victory in the first game before their home fans as the turning point, saying it felt like a new season starting.
“Not the way we wanted to start, [but we're] able to kind of reset and compose ourselves and realize this isn't the team that we are,” Olson said. “We've been playing some good baseball these last couple weeks. Won some series [against] some good teams.”
With Smith-Shawver’s win Tuesday, the Braves have won their last four series, taking two of three from the D-backs and Cardinals and starting the stretch with a sweep of the Twins.