WEST PALM BEACH – When Chaz Roe gave up two runs in the seventh inning of a previously tied game against the Nationals on Tuesday, the Braves were on their way to an eight consecutive Grapefruit League loss.
Manager Brian Snitker is only in his second season as manager and first as the full-time manager, but he’s been in the Braves organization for four decades and spent enough time on legendary manager Bobby Cox’s coaching staffs to know how unimportant spring-training scores are.
Instead of dwelling on another rough outing for Roe (14.29 ERA) – Snitker noted that in the regular season, the right-hander likely wouldn’t have faced the lefty hitters who hurt him Tuesday – Snitker focused on the latest strong performance from starter Mike Foltynewicz and the work of the other three relievers who pitched Tuesday: left-handers Eric O’Flaherty, having a resurgent-type spring, and recent waiver claim Kevin Chapman, and right-hander Blaine Boyer.
Then Snitker looked forward to having at least a somewhat relaxing day Wednesday when the Braves are off.
After that, their schedule gets less demanding for the final stretch of spring training: They play seven consecutive games before breaking camp March 29, and five of those seven are home games at ESPN Wide World of Sports. Another is at nearby Lakeland against the Tigers, the only opponent that trains within an hour of the Braves since the Nationals and Astros moved south to a new shared spring-training facility in West Palm Beach.
The Braves leave Florida after a March 29 game against the Mets and return to Atlanta for a March 31 exhibition against the Yankees to open SunTrust Park.
For the rest of spring training, Snitker expects to use his lineup regulars together a lot more than he has so far this spring. Between long bus rides that he allowed veterans to skip, and the absences of Freddie Freeman for 1 ½ weeks and Ender Inciarte for 2 ½ weeks to play in the World Baseball Classic, the Braves have rarely played more than a handful of their lineup regulars together this spring.
The Braves have a majors-worst 6-18-1 record and had a majors-worst 5.71 ERA before Tuesday, and their hitters ranked 27th in average (.242), last in slugging percentage (.355) and 29th in both OPS (.675) and runs per game (4.2).
All those numbers won’t be remembered by anyone after next week when spring training ends. And despite the lack of wins or offense, Snitker thinks most of his players have done what they need to do to prepare for opening day, with the exceptions of Dansby Swanson, who needs at-bats in the next week after returning from a two-week injury absence.
“They’re ready to go, that’s the thing,” Snitker said of his position players. “They’re ready to go, so now it’s just a matter of maybe playing two or three (games) in a row, day off and maybe two or three in a row again, play a little bit in that exhibition game (vs. the Yankees) and…. Like I say, they’re ready to go.”
