The Braves have hit their first rough patch of the 2023 season, dropping their third straight to the Padres, 10-2, on Sunday. They lost three of four against San Diego in their opening series at Truist Park.
Here are five takeaways:
1. Rookie southpaw Dylan Dodd held the Cardinals to one run over five innings in his first career start. He had a few more welcome-to-the-majors moments in his second. The Padres tagged him for seven runs on 10 hits over 4-1/3 frames.
“Obviously didn’t pitch the way I wanted to,” Dodd said. “Was kind of really searching for another pitch besides my fastball tonight really. It’s how I felt. I thought I started to show the change-up later in the game. I just thought that was something that I probably should have turned to earlier once I realized, you know, that slider wasn’t as good for me today (as it was against the Cardinals).”
Dodd prides himself on throwing strikes. He threw a bit too many Sunday. He gave up consecutive doubles on middle-placed sliders in the second. “I didn’t think (the slider) was very good tonight,” manager Brian Snitker said.
The Padres had no trouble with his fastballs either, which averaged 90.9 mph after being a shade above 92 in the first outing. Dodd didn’t have an explanation for the velocity dip.
The 24-year-old gave up homers to Nelson Cruz and Trent Grisham. Cruz’s blast came off a 83-mph slider. Grisham homered off an 89-mph fastball.
The Padres whiffed only twice on 28 swings against the fastball. They scored their first run on Jake Cronenworth’s and Ha-Seong Kim’s consecutive doubles off sliders in the third. Dodd wasn’t overpowering – or fooling – anybody.
“I think it becomes pitch development and creating swing-and-miss opportunities,” Dodd said regarding where he needs to improve. “I’ve done a great job of coming here and filling the zone up. But there are times, I think today I had a few 0-2 hits that really got me. Like yeah, it’s a strike, but it’s not really where I wanted it to go.”
2. Dodd and fellow rookie southpaw Jared Shuster have combined to allow 16 runs over 18 innings (four starts, two each). Shuster has struggled with staying in the zone during both his starts. He’s walked nine while Dodd has only issued one. But Dodd showed the risk of his approach Sunday when he just didn’t have his best stuff.
“He’s just going to have to learn how to maneuver through one of those nights,” Snitker said. “It’s not going to be easy. They’re learning on the job. It’s tough sledding in this league. They (Dodd and Shuster) will make their adjustments and learn. Only way to do it is if you throw them out there. They’ll figure out things, making pitches, how important it is, things like that. It’s going to be a total learning experience all year.
Asked what he’d like Dodd to learn from the outing, Snitker said: “Just the experience, as much as anything. You’ll go inning-to-inning, periods of the game where something might be working, and if it’s not, he has an arsenal that he can lean on. You have to realize what’s working and how important it is to hit your spots. You miss location, a lot of time you’ll get hurt against good hitters. I think it’s identifying at different points of the game where he is with everything.”
3. The first two Braves reached in the third, setting them up to potentially trim into San Diego’s 4-0 lead. But the Braves’ offense couldn’t do anything with it: Third baseman Austin Riley hit into a double play and second baseman Ozzie Albies flew out to center. That briefly summarizes the offensive performance.
Padres starter Seth Lugo, the former long-time Met, faced little resistance from an offense that’s scored three runs over the past two games. He allowed one run over six innings, departing with his Padres up nine. The Braves’ offense struck out nine times and went 1-for-12 with runners in scoring position.
“You’re going to go through those ruts,” Snitker said. “We had a pretty good first week and now it’s baseball. You just have to fight through it like we do all year.”
4. Braves outfielder Ronald Acuna has said he’s feeling fully healthy again, and it’s showed. He stole his fifth base in six attempts Sunday. He’s on an 80-steal pace.
“That speed that he has is just incredible,” Padres outfielder Juan Soto said during a sit down he and Acuna had with ESPN that aired on the Sunday Night Baseball broadcast. “Every time he’s running around the bases, you can feel the fear.”
5. The Braves didn’t lose a four-game series at home last season. They lost only five series at Truist Park. While they’ve lost their first series here in 2023, they lost two home series last April (against the Nationals and Marlins).
Stat to know
3 -- The Braves are 6-4 and three of those losses came in games started by Shuster or Dodd. The young pair that impressed during spring training are experiencing growing pains to begin their careers.
Quotable
“I’ve learned a lot. I think I’ve proven myself, you know, I think I belong here. But at the same time, I think there are a bunch of areas in my game I can still improve on and I think that’s the most exciting part.” – Dodd on his first two starts
Up next
The Braves host the Reds for a three-game series beginning Monday. Bryce Elder (1-0, 0.00) will make his second start of the season against Cincinnati’s Graham Ashcraft (1-0, 1.29).
