ATLANTA (AP) — AJ Smith-Shawver was rolling right along when he realized his Atlanta Braves teammates were beginning to avoid him.
They had a good reason. The 22-year-old rookie right-hander hadn’t given up a hit against the Cincinnati Reds — and the rest of the Braves didn’t want to jinx him.
After pitching into the eighth inning for the first time as a professional, Smith-Shawver wasn’t quite able to complete the no-hitter Monday night in his 11th major league start — and 70th overall since getting drafted in 2021. But his only blemish in a 4-0 win was Santiago Espinal’s sharp single to center field leading off the eighth.
“I probably started like really kind of noticing in the fifth, and everybody really got away from me sixth and seventh. And I was like, OK, this is real,” Smith-Shawver said. “Just trying to go out there and execute pitches, just do the same thing I’ve been doing, but just with a little bit more adrenaline.”
Braves fans gave Smith-Shawver a nice ovation after he gave up the hit, and another when he walked off the field after inducing a double play to end the eighth on his 99th and final pitch.
“It was just, like, one of those feelings. That’s what you kind of dream about as a kid, just going out there and playing the game you love,” Smith-Shawver said. “So, I mean, I’m just trying to take it all in right now.”
There were also the congratulations and hugs from his teammates in the dugout — all with a big smile on his face.
“It means everything. Whenever the guys in the clubhouse are believing in you and they want you to take the ball and go win games, I feel like, as a pitcher, that’s your ultimate goal,” Smith-Shawver said. “You want those guys to trust you and know what they’re going to get out of you every night.”
Enyel De Los Santos issued a walk in the ninth before finishing the one-hitter for Atlanta’s second shutout of the year.
But the story on this night was Smith-Shawver.
“The biggest thing I told him is, `You discovered your fastball again.’ Because it was really good. They weren’t taking real good swings at it,” Braves manager Brian Snitker said. “I told him, too, that I was prepared to let him go for a little bit to try and get (the no-hitter) if it continued on.
“I could tell, I don’t know, probably in the seventh, I said, ‘He knows what’s going on.’ Because he had a couple of reactions when that inning was over that he knew he was nearing something which is so hard to do.”
Smith-Shawver (2-2), who was trying for the first no-hitter in the majors this season, struck five and walked four. He was a high school teammate of Kansas City star shortstop Bobby Witt Jr. — they won a state championship together at Colleyville-Heritage High School in Texas in 2019, when Smith-Shawver was a sophomore and Witt was a senior before becoming the No. 2 pick in that summer’s MLB draft.
It was Smith-Shawver’s fifth start for Atlanta this season, the second since being recalled from the minor leagues, and it came six days after he won at Colorado. He pitched 5 1/3 innings against the Rockies before leaving that game after taking a liner off his right arm.
The Braves haven’t had a no-hitter since Kent Mercker pitched one at Dodger Stadium on April 8, 1994. They haven’t thrown one at home since Sept. 11, 1991, when Mercker went the first six innings in a combined no-no with Mark Wohlers (two innings) and Alejandro Peña (one inning) in a 1-0 win against the Padres.
Braves shortstop Nick Allen made a nifty play on a hard-hit grounder with one out in the third to keep the latest no-hit bid intact for a while.
“All you want as a defender is just to make plays for him, when you kind of look up at the board and you’re seeing what you’re seeing, no hits or something like that,” Allen said. “You want to get everything, dive for anything. Unfortunately, they got the one in the eighth. But he threw it so well today, and with conviction. And that’s all you can ask for. And when he does that, I mean, look what happens.”
Smith-Shawver walked two batters in the first before striking out Spencer Steer to end the inning. He also issued two walks with two outs in the fourth, then retired the next 10 batters before Espinal’s hit.
“I feel like I used my heater pretty well today. I feel like I had good results on it all day. And then it was curveball-split,” Smith-Shawver said. “It was really just kind of leaning on that (fastball) and getting myself into good counts and getting myself out of bad counts. But I thought everything was kind of working today.”
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