Atlanta Braves rookie right-hander Darius Vines is coming off a historic night at Coors Field vs. the Colorado Rockies.
Ain't no mountain high enough for rookie right-hander Darius Vines and these 2023 Atlanta Braves.
Vines made his MLB debut on Wednesday vs. the hapless Colorado Rockies, at altitude nonetheless. Atlanta cruised to a 7-3 road victory and a series sweep a Coors Field. The Braves improved to a league-best 87-45 on the season. Perhaps more impressively, Vines went 6.0 innings, allowing two earned runs on four hits, walking one, hitting one and striking out five batters on a total of 82 pitches.
This made him the first player in MLB history to throw for six innings and allow two or fewer runs at Coors Field in his big-league debut. Colorado is not the least bit good, but Coors Field is a monster!
With a little more than one month left in the regular season, it feels like World Series or bust in Atlanta.
Atlanta Braves: Darius Vines makes MLB history in debut at Coors Field
So far on their West Coast road trip, the Braves are 5-1 vs. the San Francisco Giants and Colorado. They took two of three at Oracle Park before sweeping the Rockies at Coors Field. Up next is none other than the Los Angeles Dodgers. This is Atlanta's lone trip to their bitter NL rival's place. With Atlanta four games up on the Dodgers for the best record in the NL, this series will mean so much.
Simply put, the Braves cannot afford to be swept in Chavez Ravine if they expect to have home-field advantage throughouth the postseason. Time is on Atlanta's side, but we all know what the Boys in Blue are capable of. Thankfully, the Braves got a huge quality start and a first career victory for Vines in his big-league debut. It is going to be awfully hard for him to top what he did during his next start.
Ultimately, I think it is the Braves' historically dominant offense that gives their pitching staff so much confidence to go out and toe the rubber. Vines didn't need all that much run support in his brilliant outing, but the Braves offense mustered seven in the series finale in Denver. While Atlanta has shown an ability to ground out low-scoring games, few teams, if any, can match what they can do offensively.
Vines certainly turned heads in his MLB debut for the Braves last night with his amazing performance.