Monday, April 13

ATLANTA -- Reynaldo López was just playing with us, right? That’s the question I casually asked the Braves pitcher as I passed his locker on Sunday morning.

López laughed and provided a succinct and logical answer.

“When you’re trying to fix something, you don’t throw as hard,” López said. “That’s how you get hurt.”

In other words, when López’s fastball was sitting between 88-89 mph during the final stages of his last Spring Training start on March 22 in Fort Myers, Fla., he was already starting to make the mechanical adjustments that allowed him to look more like the 2024 All-Star version of himself against the Royals on Saturday night.

López limited Kansas City to one run over six-plus innings, and his four-seamer averaged 94.4 mph during this impressive season debut.

So, what mechanical adjustment created this significant velocity increase just six days later?

“It was rather simple," López said. “I think it was the left shoulder and the left hip just opening up a little early. So, my focal point was just to try to stay closed.”

Yeah, it can be that simple. López simply dialed it down while feeling uncomfortable with his mechanics during that last Spring Training outing against the Twins. He basically went to the driving range, adjusted his swing and then turned a bunch of 200-yard drives into a bunch of 250- to 275-yard shots when he hit the course a few days later.

“We weren't sure what to expect, but he convinced us that he was good and he was going to be good and he was,” Braves manager Walt Weiss said after Saturday’s 6-2 win over the Royals. “He was outstanding.”

Pitch count is a number that is often highlighted when a pitcher is building endurance. But back when Greg Maddux was throwing 17-20 pitches over two innings and opting not to take his Grapefruit League season debuts any longer, he would always talk about the importance of preparing yourself by working within an additional inning with every Spring Training start.

There’s just something about mentally preparing yourself to pitch in the fourth, fifth or sixth inning for the first time.

López didn’t complete as many as five innings during any of this year’s spring starts, and he completed just five innings in the lone start he made before undergoing arthroscopic surgery on his right shoulder last year. So, before Saturday, he hadn’t pitched in the seventh inning since May 20, 2024.

Still, it made perfect sense to allow López to get at least one more up-down, just to mentally and physically acquaint himself with pitching in the seventh. He threw just 76 pitches through six innings, and he maintained his velocity throughout the outing. His four-seamer averaged 94.6 mph in the first and 94.1 mph in the sixth.

“His pitch count was still intact,” Weiss said. “He hadn't had seven ups yet. So, that was his seventh one. The plan was to go out and get [Salvador] Perez. That was the only hitter he was going to face. We didn't plan on Perez hitting the homer.”

López's fastball touched 97.1 mph against Perez in the fourth inning, and a 97 mph heater resulted in a Bobby Witt Jr. lineout in the third. Just three of his fastballs were clocked below 93 mph. This included his slowest heater of the night, the 92.1 mph four-seamer that Perez lined over the left-center-field wall to begin the seventh.

Though the final matchup didn’t go as desired, López’s outing was exactly what he and the Braves needed. Good news regarding the Braves' rotation has seemingly been as rare as hitting a walk-off grand slam in your debut with a team, something Atlanta fans also had a chance to celebrate Saturday night.

MLB MORNING LINEUP PODCAST

TRIVIA

Who was the first Braves player to hit for the cycle at Turner Field?

A. Albert Hall

B. Andruw Jones

C. Mark Kotsay

D. Freddie Freeman

SPEAKING OF HISTORY

Everything happens for a reason is seemingly a line that proves true more often than not. That was the feeling as Dominic Smith talked about his walk-off grand slam on Saturday and then revealed that his mother had passed away on March 15.

When Smith signed a Minor League deal with the Braves on Feb. 17, there wasn’t an apparent fit. But the former Mets and Nationals first baseman decided to join his former rivals. A fit was created a little more than a week later, when projected designated hitter Jurickson Profar was given a 162-game suspension.

At the same time, Braves president of baseball operations Alex Anthopoulos and Weiss made sure Smith stayed focused on his mother and family. They encouraged him to visit her in California during the early days of March and made sure he knew he would still have a chance to earn a roster spot.

There might not have seemed to be an initial fit, but the Braves’ fit with Smith currently feels perfect.

BOBBLEHEAD DOLL

The first 15,000 fans who attend Tuesday’s game against the A’s will receive a Drake Baldwin bobblehead doll.

TRIVIA ANSWER

C. Mark Kotsay

Kotsay’s cycle against the Cubs on Aug. 14, 2008, was the first cycle completed by a Braves player since Hall in 1987. Freeman became the only other Braves to do this at the Ted, during a June 15, 2016, game against the Reds.

FORWARDED FROM A FRIEND? SUBSCRIBE NOW

To subscribe to Braves Beat, visit this page and mark "Braves Beat" from our newsletter list. Make sure you're following the Braves or that they're checked as your favorite team.

View Online

© 2026 MLB Advanced Media, L.P. MLB trademarks and copyrights are used with permission of Major League Baseball. Visit MLB.com. Any other marks used herein are trademarks of their respective owners.

Please review our Privacy Policy.

You (mlb-newsletters@mlb.com) received this message because you registered to receive commercial email messages or purchased a ticket from MLB.