The Braves have been the worst team in baseball for almost three months now.
Soon they may be the worst team, with no qualifiers necessary.
The Marlins sent the Braves to their eight consecutive defeat on Wednesday afternoon at Turner Field. The 7-3 victory moved the Marlins (55-79) ahead of the Braves (54-79) into third place in the NL East. Only the Phillies (53-80 before playing later Wednesday) have more losses than the Braves.
The Braves have lost 15 of their last 16 games and are 12-37 since they were 42-42 on July 7. The Braves have not been much better than average at any point this season but they have usually competed. Now they are routinely losing games in which they fall behind early and never respond.
The eight-game home losing skid is the franchise’s longest since the Braves lost nine straight at Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium in 1988, a season when they lost 106 games.
Manager Fredi Gonzalez said he still believes his team is fighting.
“I’m looking to see and so far, I see guys that are in their leadership roles still have got their heads up and are still grinding,” Gonzalez said. “We are in some kind of perfect storm right now of not scoring many runs and allowing the other team to score a lot. It’s a tough combination.”
When the Braves took a 3-2 lead in the third inning, it was their first lead in 50 innings. That advantage lasted until the fourth, when Marlins tied the game on Jeff Mathis’ sacrifice fly.
The Braves head to Washington for four games beginning Thursday, followed by three at the Phillies. They have been outscored 67-19 during the streak.
“We are just going out there and trying to compete the best we can,” center fielder Cameron Maybin said. “Trying to stay together as a group. That’s all you can really do right now. Try to find some positives in a tough stretch we are in right now.”
A major problem: the three rotation spots filled by rookies are all taking their lumps. Williams Perez (4-6) took his turn on Wednesday.
Fresh up from Triple-A Gwinnett, Perez allowed six runs (four earned) over five innings. He hasn’t been able to solve his season-long issue of giving in with two strikes, two outs or both.
Marlins pitcher Adam Conley (3-1) hit a two-out single against Perez for a 2-0 lead in the second inning. The Marlins went up for good with three runs in the fifth against Perez.
It didn’t bode well for Perez when left fielder Nick Swisher dropped Martin Prado’s fly ball with no outs in the fifth inning, allowing Dee Gordon scored for a 4-3 lead. But it appeared Perez would limit the damage once he got Justin Bour to ground into a double play and had Marcell Ozuna down 0-2 in the count.
But Perez’s third pitch was a breaking ball over the plate that Ozuna hit on a line to left field. The ball just cleared the wall for a two-run homer and a 6-3 lead. Both runs were unearned because of Swisher’s error.
“He’s a young guy,” Gonzalez said. “I thought his first three or four innings he pitched pretty darn good and then he made the mistake and they ran him out of the ballpark.”
With their season in a spiral, the Braves are trying to find some small positives. They got two on Wednesday when relief pitcher Arodys Vizcaino extended his scoreless streak to 15 2/3 innings and new third baseman Hector Olivera got his first career hit.
Olivera was 0-for-4 in his debut on Monday and struck out in his first at-bat Tuesday. With the bases loaded in the third inning, he bounced a single through the left side to score Maybin and Freddie Freeman for a 3-2 lead.
The Braves couldn’t hold the advantage and lost again.
“You see guys still patting each other on the back, picking each other up, encouraging each other to keep going,” Maybin said. “Whatever happens is going to happen, but we just can’t give it away. It has to be earned. We can’t just go roll over and go through the motions. You still see guys picking each other up and coming in here upbeat. That’s definitely a positive.”
