Braves call up Reliever to start at Pittsburgh Friday night

The Atlanta Braves love how well their last “relief until go” experiment went and they’re trying again.

Free agent signing Reynaldo Lopezwho is the rotation leader in terms of ERA (1.54) after converting after three years of working in the bullpen, has obviously taught the Braves a lot about the qualities a reliever must possess to perform the conversion.

They try again with the news that the reliever Ray Kerr has been called to start tonight’s series opener against the Pittsburgh Pirates at PNC Park.

Kerr, 29, was acquired by Atlanta this offseason from the San Diego Padres along with veteran Matt Carpenter (who was later released) in exchange for minor leaguer Drew Campbell. He has pitched four games so far for the Braves this season, going 9.1 innings with three runs allowed on nine hits, two walks and ten strikeouts.

This is not the first time he has started in his professional career, although it will be his first Major League start. Kerr was a full-time starter in the minor leagues in 2018, starting 25 games for Seattle’s Class A affiliate after being signed as an undrafted free agent following the 2017 draft. games in 2019, appearing mostly in relief, and made only two starts in 2021 after the minor leagues resumed following the shortened 2020 season.

But this season, he already started one game for Gwinnett in his last minor league action before being called up in early May, going three innings against the Durham Bulls (Tampa Bay Rays affiliate) and getting his pitch count up to 50. He followed that. completed three straight three-inning relief stints for the Braves, one each against the Chicago Cubs and San Diego Padres, and pushed his pitch count up to 64 in the latter of two outings.

The length of the outing prompted manager Brian Snitker to admit that the team might consider using Kerr as a starter, and that’s exactly what the team will do tonight. The Braves bullpen still features Darius Vines, who was called up to replace Bryce Elder on Monday, and he is likely to “lean” on Kerr tonight to provide length and a bridge to conventional relief roles at the end of the match.

The corresponding decision for Atlanta was to place promising young starter AJ Smith-Shawver on the 15-day injured list with a strained left oblique muscle. Smith-Sahwver, who was impressive in his first major championship start yesterdaydidn’t mention after the game that he was feeling unwell, but it probably got worse when he woke up this morning, as it tends to do.