Glasnow’s one-hit start carried a five-walk complication

Ronald Acuña Jr. reached a 3–1 count in the first inning against Tyler Glasnow, then fouled off a 96.5-mph four-seamer. Glasnow came back with another at 98.4 mph for a called third strike. The six-pitch confrontation recovered from three balls, but that recovery was not something he repeated every time Atlanta waited him out.

Glasnow allowed one hit and one run over 4 2/3 innings in the Dodgers’ 4–1 win at Truist Park on Wednesday, October 7. Los Angeles closed the NLDS in four games. His five strikeouts came with five walks, leaving a pitching line whose limited hits did not capture the number of runners he put aboard.

The complete 78-pitch record shows a larger share of a harder four-seam fastball than in his regular season. It also shows fewer misses per swing and hard contact that often became outs. Those observations help explain how Atlanta could threaten a pitcher it hardly hit safely.

A larger four-seam share

Glasnow threw 36 four-seamers, 46.2% of his pitches, compared with 34.7% across 1,149 physical pitches in 13 regular-season starts. The pitch averaged 96.8 mph, up from 95.5 mph in that comparison. He used 16 sliders, 15 knuckle-curves and 11 sinkers; the season’s separately classified curveball did not appear in this outing.

The opening Acuña sequence shows the pitches doing different jobs. An 80.3-mph knuckle-curve began with a ball. A sinker supplied a called strike before another sinker and a slider took the count to 3–1. The two four-seamers finished the at-bat. The strikeout belonged to the sequence, including a take, rather than to a string of missed swings.

Across the outing, Atlanta missed seven of 31 swings, a 22.6% whiff rate. Glasnow’s regular-season sample produced 156 misses in 486 swings, 32.1%. His slider accounted for three misses in six swings; the four-seamer also produced three, from 17 swings. These are descriptive samples against one lineup, not proof of a lasting repertoire change.

Walks and contact kept the inning alive

Michael Harris II hit Glasnow’s first pitch, a 96.2-mph four-seamer, for a 106.8-mph single. It remained Atlanta’s only hit against him. Five of the 10 balls put in play nevertheless reached the 95-mph hard-hit threshold, including Ozzie Albies’ 104.5-mph lineout and Matt Olson’s 101.7-mph flyout. One hit was the outcome; uniformly weak contact was not the process.

Five walks created a separate route onto the bases. Glasnow threw 34 balls, and only 10 of his 20 batters faced received a first-pitch strike. His inning-by-inning four-seam averages fluctuated rather than declining steadily, from 97.6 mph in the first to 97.5 in the fourth and 96.4 in the fifth. That record does not establish fatigue or explain a missed target.

He left a 1–1 game with two outs in the fifth, Austin Riley on second and Acuña on first. Alex Vesia stranded both runners, resolving Glasnow’s final line at one earned run. Whether Glasnow can pair this faster four-seamer with fewer walks is the next question the record raises; the low hit total alone cannot answer it.