Braves drop third straight with 7-5 loss to Giants

The Braves continue to be in a season-worst malaise, losing 7-5 to the Giants on Wednesday at Truist Park, their second loss of the day, third in a row and sixth in the last seven games.

Still up seven games in the NL East, the Braves (46-27) are in an offensive funk over the past week, and the team’s good starting pitching has faltered some. On Wednesday night they were in a 5-0 hole after a 1 1/2 innings and never posed much of a serious comeback.

Manager Walt Weiss’ club will try to avoid its first four-game losing streak of the season at 7:15 p.m. Thursday in the series finale, although the weather forecast looks ominous for much of the day.

“I mean, we’ve been going so well. It’s a little bump in the road,” Braves third baseman Austin Riley said. " We’ve had some tough travel, get in at 6 a.m. (Friday in New York), a combination of a few things. You just try to take it day by day, and we’re gonna be all right. A little bump in the road, but I think we’re gonna be fine."

On Wednesday, Braves starter JR Ritchie labored in the first inning in a sign of what was to come. Luis Arraez, who drew a lead-off walk, scored with two outs in the inning on Rafael Devers’ two-strike, opposite-field double to left. Ritchie (1-2) totaled 27 pitches in the top of the first and went to a three-ball count on three of the five batters he faced.

Willy Adames greeted Ritchie in the top of the second by yanking a 0-1 slider into the seats in right for his 13th homer of the season.

Ritchie nearly got out of the inning without any further damage but walked catcher and nine-hole hitter Eric Haase. That brought Arraez to the plate, and the Giants’ second baseman ambushed a first-pitch fastball for a two-run homer to right, his third long ball of the season.

It went from bad to worse from there when Bryce Eldridge hit a fastball down the middle of the plate for a solo shot out to deep left giving the Giants (31-43) a 5-0 lead. Eldridge’s sixth homer of the season went 406 feet.

“In some tough counts, 2-0 counts, lot of three-ball counts. Tough to operate that way,” Weiss said. “And that’s a good offense. And their record is what it is, but it’s a good offense. So you’re living in some tough counts it’s really tough to operate.

“I thought he did a nice job regrouping and getting through five because he started out rough.”

Ritchie, to his credit, hung tough and made it through five innings. After a lead-off walk in the third, Ritchie recorded 12 outs in a row and left after 90 pitches with the Braves still down 5-0 in the sixth.

The rookie right-hander threw five scoreless innings of relief Friday against the Mets in New York. His last two starts with the Braves, however, have resulted in 10 earned runs on 10 hits.

Giants starter Carson Whisenhunt, making his 2026 debut, blanked the Braves for five innings before trouble began in the sixth. Back-to-back singles brought Riley to the plate, and he rolled an RBI single into left cutting the deficit to 5-1.

The Braves had been 8-for-47 with runners in scoring position over the last six-plus games before Riley’s hit. Riley went 3-for-4 for his third three-hit game of the season and first since May 22.

Reliever JT Brubaker got Eli White to roll into a fielder’s choice before pinch-hitter Dominic Smith plated a run with an RBI sacrifice fly to center.

Arraez added a two-run single in the ninth off Braves reliever Carlos Carrasco to put the game out of reach, a hit that loomed large after Mauricio Dubón hit a two-run homer with one out in the bottom of the ninth. Ozzie Albies came up later in the frame representing the tying run when facing right-hander Tristan Beck.

Beck’s third offering to Albies was a wild pitch that brought home Drake Baldwin from third and cut the deficit to 7-5. But Beck got Albies to ground out to first and Riley to strikeout swinging to end the game.

Even after its three-run rally in the ninth Wednesday, the Braves are now 10-for-54 with runners in scoring position over the last seven games.