Braves hitters struck out 99 times in their past nine games before Wednesday, putting them back on pace to threaten the team strikeout record they’ve shattered each of the past four seasons.
Even without Dan Uggla, who has been out of the lineup since late May and off the team since the All-Star break, the Braves are still on pace to strick out 1,380 times. They struck out 1,384 times in 2013 to set a team whiff record for the third consecutive season.
Uggla set the franchise individual strikeout record of 168 in 2012, then broke it last season with 171 strikeouts.
B.J. Upton is on pace to break Uggla’s record by early September and finish with a whopping 201 strikeouts. He already had a majors-leading 148 strikeouts before Wednesday, when the Braves played their 120th game.
The center fielder had nine more strikeouts than any other major leaguer, and his brother, Braves left fielder Justin Upton, had 124 strikeouts before Wednesday and was on pace for 168. Third baseman Chris Johnson also had 122 strikeouts, nine more than his season total in 2013, giving the Braves three of the top eight strikeout totals in the National League.
Only three American League players had more strikeouts than any of those three Braves before Wednesday.
“I’ve always said this when people talk about an out’s an out, a strikeout’s just an out,” Braves manager Fredi Gonzalez said. “I think there are productive outs in the course of a game and in the course of a season, and a productive out is when you advance a runner, you get a runner in from third, whether it’s a sac fly or a (ground out) when they’re playing the infield back. Those are productive outs. And a strikeout in those situations is not a productive out, even though they count the same. That’s where I stand on that.”
Example: After Jason Heyward singled with one out in the sixth inning Tuesday, Evan Gattis and Johnson both struck out to end the inning and leave Heyward at first base.
Numerous times this season, the Braves have advanced a runner to third base with less than two outs, only to strike out and strand him there.
“I agree (when you) lead off an inning, hit a ground ball to short or you punch out, it’s the same thing,” Gonzalez said of the an-out-is-an-out theory. “But a ground ball to short with a man on third and the infield back, it’s an out but you get a run. I’m not reinventing the wheel here; this thing has been around for 100 years, 200 years.”
The game has changed and strikeouts rose steadily across baseball beginning in 2008. But it’s worth noting: former Braves third baseman Chipper Jones had more walks than strikeouts in 12 of his final 15 seasons, and never struck out 100 times in a season in his 19-year major league career.
The Braves have four players who’ve already struck out more than 100 times this season, with one-fourth of the season remaining. Freddie Freeman (103) rounded out the foursome, and his 60 walks made him the only one of the four with as many as 50 walks.
Teams can live with a lot of strikeouts if they are doing other things such as drawing plenty of walks, hitting well with runners in scoring position, or hitting a lot of home runs. The Braves haven’t done any of those things well.
Before Wednesday they ranked 28th in the majors in runs (441), 22nd in batting average (.244), tied for 25th in OPS (.677), and 14th in walks (357). They are dead last in the majors with 22 sac flies.
They had the fourth-most strikeouts in the majors (1,014), fewer than only the Marlins, Astros and Cubs. Meanwhile the Braves have hit just 95 homers, tied with Arizona for 20th in the majors, and fewer than all three of the young teams that had more strikeouts.
With runners in scoring position, the Braves’ ranked 19th with a .243 batting average. With runners in scoring position and two outs, thir .199 average was tied with the Phillies for 25th in the majors.
