DENVER — As reporters filed into the entryway into the visitors’ clubhouse, Braves manager Brian Snitker stood in front of the Braves-themed backdrop for his postgame address – this one after a sixth consecutive loss. In the corner, a television that hung from the ceiling played Rockies manager Bud Black’s news conference after his team beat the Braves Friday night.
The least the universe could do is not let the man hear about the loss even more.
After the television was turned off, Snitker took questions. He spoke in a measured tone – like always. You can tell this difficult season has worn on him, but he is consistent. He is the same guy almost every day.
Which must be tough at this point.
It feels like his Braves are enduring gut punch after gut punch.
“It’s always like that when you’re in a rut like we are,” Snitker said after a one-run loss to the Rockies in the series opener. “We were in a rut, then we kind of came out of it for a short period of time. But we’re still not hitting on all cylinders – for whatever reason. It’s tough, man. This thing’s hard.”
Before this season, the Braves last had a six-game losing streak in 2017. Now, they have had two in two weeks – one from July 20-26, another from Aug. 3-9. In the seven games that separated the pair of six-game skids, the Braves won six of seven games.
The last Braves teams to lose at least six games in a row at one point in the season and still make the postseason were the 2012 and 2010 teams. But neither had two losing streaks of at least six games. However, those teams weren’t playing with the new postseason format that includes three wild-card spots.
In this slide, the Braves fell out of a postseason spot for the first time since … June 10, 2022 – more than two years ago. This scenario – the Braves missing the postseason – was unfathomable when they reported to North Port, Florida, in February.
“It’s been tough,” Austin Riley said. “There’s no other way to put it. It’s just been tough. It’s feeling like an uphill battle.”
Riley spoke in the soft tone of someone who cannot say this any differently than he’s said it for the past couple of months. How could anyone have seen this coming? The Braves have World Series-or-bust expectations – something they proclaimed in spring training – and have been left to battle for a spot at the October table.
It’s still difficult to grasp.
In these terrible times, what does a team do?
“You kind of play for each other – even when you feel like everyone’s against you,” A.J. Minter said. “I’m sure people are counting us out. I’ve been a part of some pretty special teams, and you gotta embrace the suck just as much as when everything’s going good. I know one thing is that we still got a lot of baseball left. I know we’re gonna come out of this. Winning’s contagious. Losing can be contagious as well. But I know if we get out of this and get the ball rolling, we’re gonna be just fine.”
Baseball is such that sometimes the solution isn’t clear. The Braves are clearly working hard. They care. They want to win – badly. The hitters want to hit, the pitchers want to shut down opponents. When asked about why they haven’t gotten rolling, players haven’t had an answer.
Maybe they truly do not know.
Baseball can be infuriating that way.
“It is frustrating,” Riley said. “We play a very difficult game. You can do all the right things and (have) stuff not go your way, and you can do all the wrong things and you luck up with a win. You just gotta remain positive as much as possible. It’s frustrating. We just gotta continue to fight. We still got games left and we gotta just continue to fight as hard as we can, and this group will do that.”
In that clubhouse, they’re human. Many times, fans forget about that – especially because Braves fans are used to so much winning.
The Braves aren’t supposed to play this poorly. They’re expected to be the talented and mighty group that punishes opponents and puts together winning streaks longer than a CVS receipt.
What’s it like to go through a stretch like this? To put so much into something and not see the results?
“Man, it’s tough to describe,” Jarred Kelenic said. “It’s a performance-based job, you know? When, as a team, we can’t come out here and produce and win games – the last (six) – it’s frustrating.”
Credit: AP
Credit: AP
The Braves’ offense has, for the most part, been a letdown this season. And in their most recent skid, the starting rotation and bullpen have failed the club at times. But the pitchers weren’t going to be perfect. The problem is that their stumbles are coming at a time when the Braves cannot afford any of that.
Days ago, Pierce Johnson struggled. On Friday, Minter allowed the go-ahead run after having allowed only two runs over his last 15 2/3 innings – both runs coming in the same game.
“You’re gonna go through all that,” Snitker said. “It’s just harder when you need to win a game. Everybody’s gotta be perfect when you’re going like we are.”
The Braves still have over a month and a half of the regular season to get hot. But they haven’t fully clicked yet.
At this point, fans cannot count on a turnaround. They need to see it first. They have been strung along and given false hope throughout this season.
Internally, the Braves still believe they can make something happen.
“You go back to these leaders in this clubhouse, and just the experience that we’ve gone through together, the ups and downs – but really, just the ups,” Minter said. “We know it’s still in there and we’re gonna stay strong, we’re gonna find it eventually. But at the same time, we gotta get this ball rolling. We can’t sit around and feel sorry. There’s still time and we’re still right where we need to be.”
No one could’ve expected this season to play out like it has thus far.
“It’s the game of baseball – anything can happen,” Riley said. “Every year’s different. You never know what to expect, that’s why you play 162 games. It’s tough times right now, but this group works really hard. We just gotta continue to stay behind each other and stay positive and lean on each other. Times like these, you can’t drift apart. We gotta get closer. This group will do that.”
But a stretch like this – a week of losing – is foreign to the current Braves team. They haven’t previously faced adversity like this.
In baseball, as Riley said, anything can happen.
The Braves hope they can turn that to a positive.
“I’ll say this until we’re done: We got a lot of time to do something really good,” Snitker said. “I don’t care if people like hearing that or not – it’s the way I feel. … We still got a lot of time to put something really good together.”
