Atlanta Braves starting pitcher Allan Winans tossed seven shutout innings in the team’s 21-3 win against the New York Mets on Saturday afternoon.
The 28-year-old right-hander racked up nine strikeouts and picked up his first Major League Baseball win in just his second appearance in the big leagues.
Winans has been supplementing his minor league salary in the offseason by working as a substitute teacher in his native Bakersfield, California, where he is known as “Mr. W” to his students, according to Braves broadcaster Bally Sports South.
Winans was a 17th-round draft pick in the 2018 draft; ironically, he was originally selected by the New York Mets.
“Anytime you get called to the big leagues, it’s pretty special and it’s pretty cool. But getting drafted by those guys, they definitely made me dream of Citi Field, so getting to come here and do it against those guys makes it a little more special,” Winans said after the game.
“But my job today was to help the Braves win, and that’s what we did, so I was pretty happy with it.”
“Getting your first ‘W’ in the big leagues is pretty cool no matter what team it is (against),” Winans added.
Braves’ slugger Matt Olson cracked two home runs in the blowout win to take over the big league lead with 42 long balls this season and drove in 4 runs to pad his big-league-best RBI total of 105.
BMCarbaugh on August 13rd, 2023 at 18:30 UTC »
Some Hollywood exec is starting a pitch for a sports movie called "The Substitute" like first thing tomorrow morning.
Lobster_fest on August 13rd, 2023 at 18:01 UTC »
Some context for the non-baseball fans.
He had gotten a chance earlier this season vs the Brewers and did alright. Yesterday, the team played a double header, where they're allowed to call up an extra player from their minor league affiliates for the extra game, and he was called up.
His performance was incredible given the circumstances, but its important to consider he was facing the actively tanking Mets, using a lineup of several backups, excluding their star SS and talented rookie catcher. However, as an extra piece to the puzzle, the Mets actually let Winans go earlier in his career before the Braves got him in exchange for just 25,000 (to the team), meaning this was probably a little personal for Winans. On top of that, the Mets are a close rival to the Braves.
Luckily for Winans, his team backed him up hard, scoring 21(!) runs in the game, the most for them this season.
Winans was sent down the next day because the team was no longer allowed to have 27 players on the team. With the Braves pitching staff woes, it's not unlikely Winans comes back later in the season to start another game or two, and with how strong the team is, he might get a chance in the playoffs.
Source: a lifelong Braves fan who watched every pitch of the game yesterday.
anonymous_lighting on August 13rd, 2023 at 17:27 UTC »
Love it