First Pitch Dingers: Welcome To The Show
On April 23rd, Atlanta Braves pitcher JR Ritchie made his major league debut. Taken 35th overall in the 2022 draft off Bainbridge Island in Washington State, he pitched in all levels in the minors, including making five starts at Triple-A Gwinnett to begin the 2026 season.
On that Thursday afternoon, after the Braves failed to score in the top of the first inning in Washington (DC), Ritchie took the hill. His first pitch was recorded as a 93.5-mph four seam fastball. It was also recorded that Nationals’ leadoff hitter James Wood turned it around at 102-mph, hitting it 387 feet into the right field stands. “Welcome to the Show!”
Two pitches later he induced Luis Garcia to ground out to second to record his first major league out. And five pitches later he had his first career strikeout, setting down José Tena with a nasty change-up. Ritchie struck out Tena again in the fourth inning before surrendering his second home run, this time to CJ Abrams. Abrams squared it up even better than Wood, crushing the ball 107-mph and 426 feet to center field. Ritchie bounced right back, striking out Jacob Young looking on a nasty 2-2 curveball. When all was said and done, Richie went seven innings, gave up five hits (two of which were those homers), two earned runs (on those dingers), walked two, struck out seven, and earned his first big league win. “Welcome to the Show,” indeed.
With that first inning big fly, Richie became the first Braves pitcher since 1977 to give up a home run on his first major league pitch, matching Mickey Mahler who did the same to/for Derrel Thomas against the Giants in a game the Braves ended up losing 8-7 in eleven innings. Mahler did not pitch nearly as well as Richie, going 3-2/3, giving up four hits, three earned runs, while walking two and striking out three. Like Ritchie, he also gave up two dingers in his debut, but he was long gone before the game was decided, whereas Richie got the win. The good news for Mahler is that, according to Baseball Reference, there was a total of 1,029 fans in attendance for that mid-afternoon Tuesday game at the old Candlestick Park (a meager 14,613 caught Ritchie’s mid-afternoon gem).
Tobias Myers was the last to pull off the feat in the National League, on April 23, 2024, while pitching for the Brewers against the Pirates. Andrew McCutchen took him deep, but then Myers settled in. He retired 14 of the next 18 batters, sprinkling in three singles and a walk against four strikeouts. Unfortunately for Myers, the Brewers could only muster one late run on a Gary Sanchez homer, and the rookie took the loss in his debut.
Interestingly, a first career pitch dinger has not happened in the American League since 2015, when Jose De Paula did so against Andrew Romine of the Tigers in the sixth inning of Detroit’s blowout victory over the Yankees (12-4).
After the game, Ritchie seemed to take everything in stride: “One pitch into it, I was kind of like, ‘Oh no.’ But after that, I bounced back really well. I stayed with my game plan. I was really happy about that. Yeah, this will always be a very, very special day for me.”
Ritchie, who ranks #79 on MLB’s prospect list, and #2 on the Braves’ list, was supposed to face the Jacksonville Jumbo Shrimp that day, but dialed it up at Nationals Park instead. He became the first Braves pitcher to record seven or more strikeouts and allow two runs or less, while throwing at least seven innings, in his debut. Not too shabby for a rookie pitcher and an organization that dates back to 1876.
PLAY BALL!!
