The Braves on Tuesday hosted OutKast Night, which included OutKast-themed music, scoreboard elements and, of course, the wildly popular bobblehead.
At least fans went home with the bobblehead.
The Brewers blew out the Braves, 10-0, at Truist Park. It was ugly. The Braves have lost three in a row.
And in this stretch of baseball, the Braves did something they have not done in a long time.
Five observations:
1. Before Sunday and Tuesday, the Braves hadn’t been shut out in consecutive games – home or away – since April 25, 2021, when the Diamondbacks blanked Atlanta in both games of a doubleheader. But those games were seven-inning contests.
The last time the Braves suffered back-to-back shutout losses in nine-inning games?
Sept. 1 and Sept. 2 of 2014 versus Philadelphia.
The Braves had played 1,470 official nine-inning scheduled games since this. It was the second-longest streak without shutout nine-inning losses in franchise history. (From Sept. 26, 1992 to April 2, 2003, the Braves went 1,564 games without being shut out in back-to-back nine-inning games.)
Detroit (1,588 games) is the only other club to have a streak of this type and length in the 21st century, according to Elias Sports Bureau. (This doesn’t include teams that started a run like this in the 1990s and finished in the 2000s.)
And to think the Braves’ offense had turned a corner when they won six of seven games …
“It was kind of like it was getting back there,” Braves manager Brian Snitker said. “I wasn’t completely like, ‘OK, we’re over this’ quite honestly. But I thought, ‘Well, that’s good. I mean, we gotta start somewhere.’ That’s kind of what you’re hoping for. Feeling really good at the time. Last three games, (the offense) kind of went radio silent again.”
The Braves on Tuesday endured their largest shutout loss since July 5, 2017, when the Cardinals beat them, 10-0.
2. As they have done all season, the Braves opted to build in an extra day of rest for their starters. This time, it meant handing the ball to Bryce Elder instead of Chris Sale, who will start Wednesday.
This is a well-thought out strategy. The Braves need their top starters healthy and fresh in the postseason. This will give them the best chance of winning a World Series.
Here’s something we cannot ignore, though: The Braves also aren’t guaranteed a postseason spot. Tuesday’s loss dropped them from the NL’s top wild-card spot.
Elder on Tuesday allowed seven runs – including three in the first inning – over 3 2/3 innings. He needed 85 pitches to record 11 outs a week after quieting Milwaukee.
“Well, the main thing is just Sale getting the extra time – that’s it,” Snitker said. “And we felt good with the way Bryce pitched against them the last time. I mean, that’s kind of an easy call, really. It didn’t go so good tonight, obviously. I think it’s just something we’re gonna have to do with him to get him to the finish line – Chris, I’m speaking of. When it doesn’t work, obviously it’s glaring. But you know what, if he’d have done what he did going into the seventh inning, like he did last game against these guys, we’d have been really glad we did it. Didn’t work today.”
Regular rest is pitching after four full days of rest. Entering Tuesday, the Braves had three starters in the top 10 for most starts on six-plus days of rest. Reynaldo López, who is on the injured list, had the second most such starts in baseball, with nine. Chris Sale was tied for sixth most, with seven of them – as was Charlie Morton.
The MLB high for starts on five days of rest, entering Tuesday, was 14. Morton and Max Fried have 12 such starts. Sale has 11.
If they make the postseason, this could serve them well.
The tough part for the Braves: They’re doing this while fighting for a playoff spot – and October isn’t guaranteed. But the Braves aren’t being conceited. They’re simply trying to take care of their starters, especially.
López is on the injured list. Fried just came off of it. Sale has pitched 123 innings for the first time since 2019, so the Braves are trying to keep him healthy.
The Braves on Tuesday began a stretch of 26 games in 27 days. And in the previous two seasons, Atlanta had some padding in the postseason picture to be creative with its rotation. But now, Snitker said the Braves aren’t looking at the matchups or specific series. They’re just trying to worry about when certain guys are pitching.
“We’ve looked at the series and opponent and adjusted accordingly to that (in previous seasons),” Snitker said. “We’re more than, like, a guy away from doing that right now. I’m not (crying about it) or anything, but when you got guys down – back then, we kind of had everybody upright. We don’t have that right now, so we’re trying to look at keeping as many of them upright as we can, quite honestly.”
Credit: Jason Getz / Jason.Getz@ajc.com
Credit: Jason Getz / Jason.Getz@ajc.com
3. With two outs in the top of the first inning, former Brave William Contreras drove a ball to deep right field. Jorge Soler sprinted back and crashed into the wall trying to make a play, but the ball bounced off the tall brick wall for a run-scoring triple. The next batter, Willy Adames, smoked a two-run homer.
This was only the beginning.
The Brewers scored another run in the third inning. And in the fourth, Adames smashed his second two-run homer of the night.
To put those homers into context: Adames drove in four runs by himself over the first three innings. The Braves have scored three runs total over their last three games.
For Elder, this start came a week after he held this same Brewers club to a run over 6 1/3 innings on the road. Elder didn’t fool them this time. His ERA is 6.52. Yes, he’s been dealt a tough hand with his irregular schedule and going up and down between Triple-A and the majors, but the Braves could use more consistency from him.
4. The Braves haven’t scored in 24 innings, dating to the third inning of Saturday’s loss to the Marlins. Since the Braves last scored, they’ve been outscored, 20-0.
The Braves’ offense has once again disappeared.
“That’s the toughest part, probably,” Snitker said. “We feel like we’re a lot better of an offensive team than what we’ve shown, really all year, quite honestly. Even with losing guys, we still feel the guys and the manpower we have are capable of scoring more runs than we have. And that’s the tough thing, when we’ve kind of been so accustomed, I think, to being such an offensive force here, and now all of the sudden, we’re not this year, for whatever reason. … I’m hopeful that we’re gonna get on that sustained run. Haven’t done that yet. We’ve had four or five really good days and can’t get over the hump.”
The Brewers’ Colin Rea has had a good season. Before Tuesday, he’d logged five scoreless starts – one of which lasted seven innings. That came at the beginning of July versus the Rockies.
At Truist Park, Rea turned in his second outing of seven scoreless innings in this season. He stymied the Braves, who have struggled against a lot of starters this season.
In the final five games of their most recent road trip, the Braves’ offense looked as if it was turning a corner. But how many times have we said that this season? The Braves have gained momentum at times this season, but they’ve never maintained it.
About the 24-inning scoreless run: Only Minnesota (28 innings without scoring in May), Baltimore (25 without scoring in July) and Kansas City (25 without scoring in June) are the only teams with longer such streaks this season.
5. The Braves went from losing six in a row to winning six of seven to losing three in a row.
All in the same couple of weeks.
This is how it’s gone for Atlanta this year. This team has taken you on a roller-coaster ride.
The Braves have 50 games remaining. That’s enough time to get hot.
“It’s a lot of games to do something really good, to get on the good run that I’m hoping for, quite honestly,” Snitker said. “And you can eat up a lot of games, as we’ve seen and we’ve done in the past in a short period of time. We’re just kind of having a hard time getting it going consistently.”
It’s also worth mentioning this: If you get into the postseason, you have a chance to win it all. This is the theme of baseball’s incredibly unpredictable playoff format.
None of this makes the last few days easier for fans to stomach. This team’s inconsistency is confusing.
The last few days have been brutal.
Stat to know
6.11 - Fried, López, Sale and Morton have combined to post a 3.03 ERA this season, and the Braves have gone 47-31 in their starts. Nine other arms have made 34 starts, and together have logged a 6.11 ERA. The Braves have a 13-21 record in those games.
Quotable
“I mean, hopefully, I’ll never have to do it again. But only pitching well will handle that, so when you have nights like this, it sucks. But I pitched good last week and I got sent back down and I pitched bad this week and I got sent back down. At this point, you just get used to it and hopefully (I) get another opportunity.” - Elder on his role – going up and down and being off his routine – this season
Up next
On Wednesday, Sale will face right-hander Freddy Peralta and the Brewers. First pitch is at 7:20 p.m.
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