PHOENIX – The Braves blew a four-run lead and eventually lost, 8-7, to the Diamondbacks in 10 innings on Tuesday at Chase Field.
Here are five observations on Atlanta (23-27):
1. Braves manager Brian Snitker usually will not blast his players in front of cameras and recorders. He often remains level after losses, and even focuses on the positive.
He seemed more irked by this loss.
“We didn’t play well enough to win,” Snitker said. “We shot ourselves in the foot. We didn’t play a good ballgame. We didn’t play well enough to win. We did too many things to hurt ourselves. And we can’t do that. You can’t give away outs. We didn’t make enough pitches. It was an ugly game. Very ugly game.”
The Braves led by four runs after the top of the sixth. They saw that lead slowly slip away over the final few innings, and then their elite closer blew his third save in his last six appearances. The Braves scored in the top of the 10th inning, but gave up two runs in the bottom half.
They made outs on the bases. They failed to add on offensively, even if Matt Olson’s monster game almost carried them.
They gave away the game, and the series.
2. It is one thing for an opponent to beat you.
It is another to beat yourself.
The Braves did the latter on Tuesday. They have done it too often this season.
“These guys are good players,” Snitker said. “They’re sound, fundamental players and we didn’t play a sound, fundamental game. And you can’t win big-league games if you don’t. We got to check ourselves. We got to do better. We got to do better if we’re going to do anything. We can’t consistently go out and play like that and expect to win.”
In this game, A.J. Minter, who has been terrific all season, allowed both runners he inherited in relief of Charlie Morton to score. Will Smith let in another run in the eighth.
In the ninth, Kenley Jansen allowed two singles before the tying run scored on a sacrifice fly. In the 10th, Jackson Stephens allowed two runs – but the deck was probably stacked against him when the offense only scored a run in the top half.
The Braves have had too many sloppy losses to this point.
Why?
“I don’t know, I couldn’t tell you,” Snitker said. “I can’t tell you. It’s not for a lack of effort, it’s not for a lack of preparation. We just got to, as a team, come together and play better, and be aware of all that, and play good, sound fundamental baseball again – which we have done for a long time and for whatever reason, the last couple days we haven’t.”
Credit: AP
Credit: AP
3. In the third inning, Ronald Acuña tried to stretch a run-scoring double into a triple and was thrown out at third. He hardly gets thrown out on the bases, but this one proved costly because he would’ve scored on Dansby Swanson’s single had he stayed on second base.
In the 10th, Marcell Ozuna, who is not fast, tried to go first to third on Austin Riley’s single that scored the go-ahead run. Instead of having men on first and second with no outs, a chance to add on, the Braves had one out and a runner on first. They didn’t score again, and the Diamondbacks walked it off in the bottom of the 10th, when Cooper Hummel hit a ball off Jackson Stephens that landed on the right-field line for a walk-off single.
The Braves are aggressive on the bases. It has worked out a lot, especially if an outfielder’s throw isn’t on the money.
It just didn’t work out in this loss.
“We just got to be careful,” Snitker said. “But we’re making too may outs on the bases. We’re better than that. There’s times to push the envelope and times to be aggressive. The guys are all trying to make a great play. They’re trying to help their team.”
4. The loss spoiled Olson’s best game as a Brave.
In the first five innings, Olson was 3-for-3 with two doubles, a home run and four RBIs. He had helped give the Braves a four-run lead. He finished 4-for-5.
Olson leads baseball with 23 doubles, which is three more than second-place Rafael Devers.
The Braves’ offense appeared to do enough. Michael Harris II collected his first career RBI in the sixth, which gave the club a four-run lead.
But the Braves needed more. Not only did they make outs on the bases, but they began the eighth with runners on the corners and filed to add onto a two-run lead.
5. The Braves believe their tight-knit clubhouse could help them overcome a loss like this and begin to turn a corner.
“It’s a different experience when you have a really good group of guys and close group of guys,” said Charlie Morton, who started the game. “On an individual level, it makes it easier to deal with some ups and downs, that’s for sure. Days can seem like weeks, weeks can seem like months sometimes when you can’t get momentum going.”
A loss like this, multiple players said, can bring a team together.
“It’s hard, man,” Jansen said. “You got to keep battling, and we just got to keep our head up and don’t hang our heads. That’s not the thing you want to do in this situation.”
Stat to know
6 - Olson now has six four-hit games in his career.
Quotable
“We got a ton of baseball left this year. Baseball happens. They squeezed a few through our shift, some not-that-hard-hit stuff just happened to get through, last ball hit the line perfectly. It’s going to be baseball sometimes. It’s a tough loss but it’s the beauty of baseball, (is) we got tomorrow.”-Olson after the loss
Up next
In Wednesday’s series finale, Atlanta right-hander Kyle Wright will go up against Arizona left-hander Madison Bumgarner. The game begins at 3:40 p.m. ET.
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