Today's Three Things: Braves offense falters again in another one-run loss
Atlanta has lost five consecutive games by one run as part of a seven-game losing streak
The San Francisco Giants finished off the sweep of Atlanta, taking down the Braves 4-3 in Oracle Park on Sunday afternoon.
Here’s Today’s Three Things from the contest.
The Turning Point
There are two of them, and they both involve Ozzie Albies.
Atlanta entered the bottom of the 4th with a two-run lead and Spencer Strider on the mound. He immediately got into trouble.
Walking both Wilmer Flores and Matt Chapman to open the frame, Strider rebounded with a fly out of Dominic Smith, one aided by a diving catch from Ronald Acuña Jr. After Casey Schmitt grounded out, advancing the runners to 2nd and 3rd, Mike Yastrzemski brought them both in with a line drive double just barely inside the right field foul line to tie the game at three.
And then Ozzie, shaded up the middle against Tyler Fitzgerald, ranged to his left but booted a grounder into right field, allowing Chapman to score.
The other turning point came on offense, at the top of the sixth.
After the Braves got a two-out single from Michael Harris and a Sean Murphy walk, Ozzie came up with the game-tying runner in scoring position. Facing starter Landen Roupp, Ozzie worked a five-pitch at-bat that finished with him weakly bouncing a grounder back up the middle for the final out of the inning.
It was a changeup that was what, a foot below the zone? He hit it at 46.7 mph. Just a poor swing decision from the struggling veteran.
Atlanta would not get another runner in scoring position in the game and lost, once again, by a single run.
Today’s Player of the Game
Not joking, but there’s not one.
Candidates include Austin Riley, who went 2-4 and had a nice defensive play at the hot corner, and Matt Olson, who went 1-4 and drove in all three of Atlanta’s runs in this one.
But ultimately, no one really stood out in this one enough to earn the designation of Player of the Game.
What You’ll Be Talking About
The overall trend for the Braves.
We were jokingly asking if Atlanta had hit rock bottom earlier this year, but this last week might take the cake. Let me give you a smattering of stats that illustrate how rough things have been recently.
From the pitching front, the team’s starters covered 20 innings this weekend, pitching to a 3.15 ERA with 9.45 K/9, and all had quality starts. The Braves lost all three games.
They’ve now lost seven straight games, being winless in the month of June; it’s the first time the team’s had multiple seven-game losing streaks in a season since 2016. The team has fallen to 10 games under .500 at 27-37, the first time they’ve been that far under .500 since 2017.
Atlanta has lost 14 of their last 17 games, as well as the last 10 one-run games. They’re 0-6 in recent series, with their last winning set being three games against the Red Sox in Boston, May 16th-18th.
Atlanta’s currently 14 games back in the NL East, just 2.5 ahead of the Miami Marlins, and have eight teams ahead of them in the NL Wild Card standings.
What’s Next for the Braves?
Atlanta’s hoping to right the ship in Milwaukee this week against the Brewers. Here are the starters for the series:
Monday (7:40 PM): Chris Sale vs Aaron Civale
Tuesday (7:40 PM): Grant Holmes vs Quinn Priester
Wednesday (2:10 PM): Spencer Schwellenbach vs Chad Patrick
You are correct with the Albies comments with his play affecting the outcome of the game. However, my favorite player to call out is Michael Harris, who once again made the 3rd out twice, and at least once if not both times with runners in scoring position. I follow Spencer Strider closely beginning when he was pitching for Clemson and later the Augusta Greenjackets, where I got an unsolicited signed ball from him during a discussion before the game. About Strider, yesterday there were small improvements he has made, his velocity has inched up a bit, which is a good thing, but his biggest need continues to be placement and control. The two walks came back to bite him as this anemic club did not have any further run production in them to offset those runs. Of course had Albies done his job, we very well may be talking about a Braves win and a Strider win, but not this season, as the dark cloud seems to be hanging around for such a long time. A result I have always disliked, which is a high scoring game from both sides, like 18-13, would be so welcome right now. Its time for these players to act how they played when they were signed, and score some runs. Score enough and the other stuff becomes footnotes. One last thing, Montero had a clean inning, and with everyone bashing him (me included), I just wanted to note that. Also, Bryce Elder had the game of his life, and nothing to show for it as well. That was more like the Elder we saw when he made the All Star team. Wish he could string 7 or 8 of those starts together. Somebody on this roster is gonna have to pickup the flag and lead with it. We are missing that person right now. I hope one steps uo.
When looking at the pitchers the Braves were facing for the Giants you said something like, "I hope the Braves win one game"--sadly you were so correct sir. Tough times indeed.