The Braves are no better than mediocre, as indicated by their 76-76 record.
They are also monotonous, repeating the same pattern as they plummet out of serious playoff contention this month.
The starting pitcher is good to great but the Braves lose because the offense is bad to awful. Braves starters are left to answer some variation of the same question: Is it frustrating to keep losing while pitching so well?
Aaron Harang was the latest to go through the drill. He made one big mistake on Tuesday, a two-run homer allowed to Washington’s Ian Desmond, and the Braves went on to lose 3-0.
When the time came, Harang answered the inevitable question the best he could.
“I know the guys are busting their tail, they are in that (batting) cage getting that extra work,” he said. “It’s just one of those things.”
Like most everyone else trying to analyze the Braves, their starting pitchers struggle to explain the cratering offense. Unlike most people, their fortunes are directly tied to that futility.
Braves starters continue to pitch well while waiting for run support that rarely materializes, and then insist that it doesn’t wear on them.
“I don’t really think that affects our job,” Braves left-hander Mike Minor said. “We’re still going to go out there and try to get everybody out. So for me personally, I don’t really feel any pressure. I just feel like if you do your job, we’ll come around.”
But the offense hasn’t come around. Back during spring training, it was hard to predict this is how the season would play out.
Certainly there were potential holes in the lineup after veterans B.J. Upton and Dan Uggla both had career-worst years in 2013. But most of the questions centered on the starting rotation after Kris Medlen and Brandon Beachy were lost to season-ending injuries during camp.
In spite of that, effective starting pitching is a given most nights for the Braves.
“It’s continued to be a strength when everybody thought it wouldn’t be after the spring,” Braves first baseman Freddie Freeman said.
The Braves have gotten a quality start in 70 percent of their games, the best mark in the majors. The Braves lead the majors with 106 quality starts, six more than any other team entering Thursday.
But they’ve lost 28 games in which pitchers posted a quality start, most in the majors by six games. It’s not that the bullpen has blown a bunch of leads—there have been just 13 games in which Braves starters were in a position for a win before relievers gave back leads.
If Braves starters have tired of losing games they probably deserve to win because of a lack of scoring, they don’t show it.
“That’s not really how I look at it,” Alex Wood said. “We’re heading down the stretch here, you know? So the only thing frustrating is us not getting W’s as a team.”
While much has gone wrong with the Braves’ offense, the starting rotation ended up coming together better than even optimistic projections.
Julio Teheran has followed a good year in 2013 with an All-Star campaign this season. Wood, projected in the spring to possibly come out of the bullpen, has been so good that Braves manager Fredi Gonzalez said there’s now “no question” he’s a top-of-the-rotation starter.
Harang and Ervin Santana were late additions after the injuries to Medlen and Beachy and they’ve been consistent for the most part. Minor got knocked around in June and July but, since having his turn skipped in August, has posted a 3.30 ERA with six quality starts in seven outings.
“Every time I drive to the ball park, I feel the starter is going to give us a great chance to win the ball game, one through five,” Gonzalez said. “ I think this might have been the only year I’ve been here that you feel that way every single day. Every rotation, there is always one guy you go, ‘Oh, (no), he’s pitching today’ and you don’t know what’s going to happen today.”
