Braves Report: ‘We can’t do this (stuff) forever’

The Braves broke their streak of alternating wins and losses yesterday. But not in the fun way.

In fact, it was in the “strike out a historic number of times to ruin Spencer Strider’s return and lose 3-1” kind of way.

We’ll mope about that — plus take your pulse on things — after a quick look at what’s coming up.

THE SERIES AHEAD

Off day today, then back to the friendly confines of Cobb County. This time with the Minnesota Twins along for the ride.

📺 How to watch: Friday through Sunday games start at 7:15, 7:15 and 1:35 p.m., respectively. Friday is on AppleTV, the others on FanDuel Sports.

• The first 3,000 kids at Sunday’s game will get a free “Blooper Mascot Security” T-shirt.

⚾ The starters: Likely matchups include Bryce Elder (0-1, 7.20) vs. Chris Paddack (0-2, 9.49); Chris Sale (0-2, 6.63) vs. Simeon Woods Richardson (1-1, 4.30); and Grant Holmes (1-1, 3.78) vs. Joe Ryan (1-1, 2.45).

OFF-DAY VIBE CHECK

The subject line of this email is part of a quote from Braves first baseman Matt Olson, following the team’s latest epically bad offensive performance.

🗣️ Here’s more of it. And no, he didn’t say “stuff”: “We’re going to be able to flush it as best as we can, but like I said, it can’t happen. We gotta play better. There’s no secret to that. Sure, we got a lot of games left, but we can’t do this (stuff) forever. We gotta find a way to start playing better baseball all the way around.”

Honestly? It’s nice to hear a little more frustration than optimism at this point.

🗣️ Because Wednesday’s bats were an abomination.

• The Braves tied a modern-era franchise record by striking out 19 times in a nine-inning game.
• That included seven strikeouts with runners in scoring position.
• Overall, Atlanta went 0-for-9 with RISP on Wednesday.
• For the season, they’re hitting .184 in those situations, which is 25th of 30 teams.
• They’ve struck out on nearly one-third of their opportunities.

Frankly, there’s not a lot of things left to say about this. It’s demoralizing, dates back to last season and basically boils down to “do better.”

Maybe that’ll happen. My esteemed colleague Michael Cunningham argues there’s already an urgent need to start stacking up wins.

🗣️ But I wanna know how you all are feeling about the team in general, three woeful weeks in. Which choice best sums up the 5-13 feelings in your household?

A. We’re doomed.

B. Everything’s still in play! World Series or bust!

C. I’m just along for the ride, good or bad, at this point.

D. Ask me after Memorial Day.

Shoot me an email with your answer and a brief explanation. I’ll round a few responses up in tomorrow’s Braves Report.

MORE POSITIVE THINGS

🥳 Spencer Strider making his first start in a calendar year was, of course, something to celebrate. He looked pretty darn good, if a tad rusty at times.

• His line: Two earned runs over five-plus innings and 97 pitches. Five strikeouts. One walk.
• He also became the fastest starter to 500 strikeouts in MLB history (in terms of how many innings it took).

As AJC columnist Ken Sugiura wrote in today’s Sports Daily newsletter (check it out!), Strider’s fastball velocity was down a bit compared to previous seasons. Opposing batters’ swing-and-miss rates lagged, too.

But, you know … first start and all.

🥳 Catcher Drake Baldwin hit his first major league home run, too! It was a ninth-inning solo shot to left off Jeff Hoffman. A future trivia question, perhaps?

🥳 Outfielder Alex Verdugo, a late spring signing, got called up to the big league team earlier today, with the corresponding move sending Bryan De La Cruz to Triple-A Gwinnett.

Verdugo slumped for the Yankees last season but had some solid average-and-on-base-percentage years with the Red Sox.