PHILADELPHIA -- Hurston Waldrep’s first full month as a Major Leaguer was statistically one of the five best months produced by any Braves pitcher this century.
Waldrep improved his bid to be named National League Rookie of the Month while helping the Braves claim a 3-1 win over the Phillies on Sunday night at Citizens Bank Park. His effort was rewarded when Drake Baldwin improved his NL Rookie of the Year bid with a two-out, two-run homer off left-handed reliever Jose Alvarado in the ninth.
"Being able to win that game so people can recognize how good of a game he had is huge,” Baldwin said.
Baldwin entered as a pinch-hitter in the eighth inning and showed his great hitting skills an inning later with the game-winning shot. This was just the sixth home run Alvarado has surrendered in 444 career at-bats against a left-handed hitter.
But left vs. left has never bothered Baldwin, who has four homers and a .936 OPS through 59 career plate appearances against left-handed pitchers.
"The year that he’s having is pretty awesome,” Waldrep said.
As for Waldrep, he capped his awesome month by tallying a career-high nine strikeouts while limiting the Phillies to just one run over 5 2/3 innings. He exited one out shy of gaining the distinction of saying he constructed a 1.00 ERA during this exciting and memorable August.
While the number might not be as aesthetically pleasing, Waldrep's 1.01 ERA over 35 2/3 innings in August stands as the fifth-best ERA produced by any Braves pitcher with at least 35 innings in any month since the start of the 2000 season.
"That’s crazy with all the great pitchers the Braves have had,” Baldwin said. “I’m sure the list is crazy.”
The five-best ERAs posted by a Braves pitcher (minimum 35 innings) this century:
Kris Medlen 0.50 (35 2/3 innings, May 2012)
Tom Glavine 0.89 (40 1/3 innings, April 2002)
Shelby Miller 0.95 (38 innings, May 2015)
Medlen 1.00 (36 innings, September/October 2013)
Waldrep 1.01 (35 2/3 innings, August 2025)
"I don’t really think about it,” Waldrep said. “It is what it is. It's one of those things where you keep working, look up and see the numbers and then put your head down and keep going.”
Waldrep’s success is even more impressive when you account for the fact his only two previous MLB appearances before this past month were completed in June 2024, when he clearly wasn’t ready for the Majors. It’s also not bad considering the 23-year-old hurler was awoken around 11 p.m. on Aug. 2 with a call that informed him he’d be making his big league season debut a little more than 12 hours later at the Bristol Motor Speedway.
The Braves weren’t sure if Waldrep was ready before calling upon him to make an emergency appearance after the Speedway Classic was suspended on Aug. 2 and moved to the following afternoon.
But he has repeatedly shown how much he has grown since being first called to the Majors in June 2024, less than a calendar year after the Braves took him out of the University of Florida with their first-round pick in the 2023 MLB Draft.
"I love the way he goes about it and how he handles himself,” Braves manager Brian Snitker said. “He's got it together. He’s got a good idea of what he wants to do.”
Waldrep’s top weapon has always been his splitter, a pitch the Phillies whiffed against with 13 of 26 swings. He’s also created more horizontal deception by improving both his cutter, a pitch that moves away from right-handed hitters, and his sinker, which moves in on right-handed hitters.
But it’s looking like poise might be one of Waldrep’s top weapons. He escaped a third-inning bases-loaded threat by striking out Kyle Schwarber and getting Bryce Harper to ground out. The Phillies put two on with none out in that frame. Another strikeout of Schwarber helped kill another threat in the fifth.
Brandon Marsh’s two-out solo homer in the fourth prevented Waldrep from keeping his ERA below 1.00.
But 1.01 isn’t so bad.
"I’m pretty happy with it so far,” Waldrep said. “It’s a lot of good stuff to build off, but there’s also a lot to work on.”