Eric Stults avoided giving up a home run in his previous 10 2/3 innings pitched in four games at Great American Ball Park, including one start. But Wednesday, the Braves left-hander served a long ball before recording his fourth out.
The Reds got homers from Marlon Byrd in the second inning and Todd Frazier in the third on the way to a 5-1 win that clinched the series and handed the Braves their fifth loss in six games on a nine-game trip. Stults has allowed six homers during his three-start losing streak.
To make matters worse, the Braves lost their home-run leader, Kelly Johnson, to a strained oblique muscle. He left during a first-inning at-bat and was placed on the 15-day disabled list, with outfielder Todd Cunningham recalled from Triple-A Gwinnett to take his place — but certainly not replace Johnson’s power.
The Braves didn’t get a hit until the sixth inning against Cuban rookie Raisel Iglesias (1-0) in his second major start, which was supposed to be a fill-in start but went so well it might have earned him consideration for a rotation spot.
“He kind of reminded me of El Duque (Orlando Hernandez), with the high leg kick and throws from different angles,” Braves manager Fredi Gonzalez said. “Bunch of pitches from different angles. We had him on the ropes one time, he got out of it.”
The Braves had runners at first and second with one out in the sixth inning, but the next three batters flied out. The Braves went 0-for-4 with runners in scoring position Wednesday and 4-for-29 in the series, after coming to Cincinnati with a majors-leading .318 average in those situations.
“I’m just baffled,” said the Braves’ hot-hitting Freddie Freeman, who had his nine-game hitting streak snapped and flied out with a runner on first and one out in the first inning and again with two on and one out in the sixth. “I had pitches to hit tonight. I can’t speak for everybody else, but every at-bat I had pitches right down the middle and I just missed them.”
Iglesias limited the Braves to two hits and one run in eight innings, with three walks and five strikeouts. Meanwhile, Stults (1-4) was charged with six hits — four of them extra-base hits — with one walk and three strikeouts.
“They got Stultsy pretty quickly – five innings, five runs,” Gonzalez said of the Braves lefty, who has allowed two homers in each of his past three starts. “I think the balls are over the plate, really. Byrd’s got him twice on balls over the plate, over at our place and here. He doesn’t have that velocity to make mistakes over the plate.”
The Braves have an off day in South Florida to regroup before starting a three-game series Friday against the Marlins.
Stults saw his ERA climbed to 5.36. He has given up 24 hits, six homers and 14 runs in 18 innings over his past three starts, while seeing his innings pitched go from seven to six to five in that span.
“I haven’t given up a lot of hits the last couple of starts, but the ones I have given up have been big ones,” Stults said. “It goes back to pitch execution. I think it’s all adjustments that can be made, and need to be made. … They’re swinging the bat well. One of those nights where they didn’t miss anything. Just give them credit, move on and try to keep working.”
Eric Young Jr.’s pinch-hit single to start the sixth ended Iglesias’ no-hit bit, and the Braves averted the shutout when Pedro Ciriaco had a pinch-hit triple with one out in the eighth and scored on a Nick Markakis groundout to the right side.
They’ve only been shut out once this season, but the Braves have scored two runs or fewer five times in their past 13 games, while their pitching staff has a 5.30 ERA during a 5-10 slide.
Iglesias was brought up from Triple-A on Wednesday to make the spot start necessitated by a Reds rainout Saturday and doubleheader Sunday. In his April 12 debut against the Cardinals, the 25-year-old right-hander gave up five hits, three runs and two walks in five innings for no decision in a Reds loss.
He fared far better against the Braves, who’ve lost four of seven against the Reds in two weeks. The teams split a four-game series in Atlanta April 30-May 3, when the Braves scored 14 runs including at least four in each of the final three games in the series.
The Braves totaled just six runs in the three-game series at hitter-friendly Great American Ball Park, with a high of three runs in Tuesday’s 4-3 loss.
