Despite all the head-scratching about the Braves' pitching, and what they’ll do if Brandon Beachy’s elbow injury keeps him out long-term, starting pitching is one area where the Braves have been really good of late. Defense, too.
It’s their bats that fell silent for two days against the Baltimore Orioles and left them holding a series loss after losing again Sunday, 2-0.
The Braves managed only eight hits in two games against Baltimore’s staff to suffer their first back-to-back shutout losses since June 5-6, 2009, against Milwaukee.
The Braves got eight strong innings from rookie Randall Delgado, who matched his career-high in innings pitched and gave up only three hits. But the way the Braves have been swinging, one run was going to be enough to do him, in and he gave up two.
“It’s tough sledding right now,” said Chipper Jones, who went 4-for-21 in the homestand. “We’re running into some pretty good pitching, and that combined with some pretty bad hitting, it’s a formula for not scoring a ton of runs.”
The Braves hit only .136 (8-for-59) in the two losses and were 3-6 in the homestand. Jason Hammel pitched a one-hit shutout Saturday night, and Wei-Yin Chen followed it with seven shutout innings Sunday. He gave up six hits, but used double plays in each of the first three innings to hold off the Braves.
Delgado foiled their best scoring chance in the third inning when he bunted into a double play. With runners first and second, the shortstop covering third base, and both corner infielders charging in, Braves manager Fredi Gonzalez said he would have liked to see Delgado pull back and take a swing and try to hit the ball up the middle.
Delgado also costs himself a run with a rookie mistake from the mound. He balked in a run when he started into the windup with a runner on third base and the infield in and flinched when Gonzalez whistled to him to pitch from the stretch.
“Those are just the signs of a young pitcher,” Gonzalez said. “But other than that, I thought we took a big step forward with him, coming in, competing, giving us eight solid innings. Terrific job. When he pitches like that, it’s nice to watch. And we made some unbelievable plays defensively this afternoon. Simmons at shortstop was a highlight reel by himself.”
Andrelton Simmons made a great diving play to his right to rob Adam Jones in the fourth inning and was almost as impressive with his strong throw to first. He also got off a great double play with a quick turn by Dan Uggla in the seventh.
Jones’ leadoff double helped the Orioles manufacture a run in the second inning, and they added another on Steve Pearce’s double over Matt Diaz’s head in left field. He ultimately scored on the balk.
“They did a good job of executing small ball for an American League team,” catcher David Ross said. “You can see why they’re winning a lot of ballgames.”
The Orioles took two out of three, but remained 1 1/2 games behind the Yankees in the AL East. The surging Yankees have won nine in a row and await the Braves on Monday in New York.
“The Yankees took it to us pretty good here,” said Jones, referring to the three-game sweep at Turner Field earlier in the week. “So we’ve got something to prove.”
Freddie Freeman missed his fourth consecutive game Sunday with a swollen index finger, but after receiving two cortisone shots Saturday hopes he can return Tuesday against the Yankees.
“When the guy who hit third for most of the year is sitting next to you for three or four games, not healthy with the finger, it hurts,” Gonzalez said.
