Spencer Schwellenbach joined an exclusive list in baseball history when he made his Major League debut for the Atlanta Braves on May 29. It had nothing to do with his performance.
His 20-letter name, however, is tied for third longest in the game’s long history. Only Christian Encarnacion-Strand of the Cincinnati Reds and Simeon Woods Richardson of the Minnesota Twins are longer. The Reds’ infielder has one more character, including the hyphen, than the 26-letter alphabet. Woods Richardson’s full name is 22 letters.
Schwellenbach wasn’t letter-perfect in his debut, though he held the Washington Nationals scoreless for four innings. In the fifth, he yielded a double to Joey Gallo and hit Jacob Young in the head with a pitch after the rookie had squared around to bunt.
“That was scary for sure,” Schwellenbach told reporters. “Obviously, very happy that he stayed in the game and that nothing was wrong with him. They came out and talked to me, just kind of got me settled down and it helped for sure. I was able to get back out there and keep going.”
He struck out CJ Abrams, then gave up a three-run homer to Lane Thomas. Overall, he yielded five hits, one walk and struck out five over those five innings.
“I thought his stuff was real good,” Braves manager Brian Snitker told reporters. “He handled himself really well. The composure, the slowing the game down. I thought he was very impressive.”
