The Braves had four fewer wins through the season’s one-sixth mark (27 games) than they had a year ago, but their offense has been better by almost every measure.
Before Wednesday the Braves, with a 13-14 record, ranked 11th in the majors and third in the National League in runs (4.37 per game), after finishing the 2014 season ranked 29th in runs (3.54).
The Braves led the majors with a .316 average with runners in scoring position before Wednesday, after finishing 28th in 2014 with a dismal .236 average.
They had a 17-10 record at the same point in 2014, attributed mostly to a stingy 2.69 ERA that was nearly 1 ½ runs lower than the 4.08 ERA the Braves had entering Wednesday night’s series finale against the Phillies.
“Yeah, I think we’ve been swinging the bats really well,” said Braves first baseman Freddie Freeman, who was 17-for-39 (.436) in his past 10 games with six doubles and a homer. “If we don’t swing the bat well one day, we come back the next day and swing well. We’ve never been really in a funk all season. We’ve been scoring runs, and I think that’s all you can do as an offense. We weren’t really good last year, and we’ve been doing a lot better this year so far.”
The Braves were shut out five times in their first 25 games last season. They have been shut out once this year.
“I think we had a better record (early) last season,” Freeman said. “But as an offense we took it upon ourselves this year at spring training to get better and make things happen, and I think we’re doing that so far through the first (27) games. Hopefully we can just keep that going. We all know the pitching will get back on track.”
Despite trading away three key hitters lineup – Justin Upton, Jason Heyward, Evan Gattis – and adding only one lineup regular (Nick Markakis) during their offseason of wholesale changes, the Braves, with a reduced payroll and platoons at several positions, have been a better offensive team so far.
Though they had 23 homers through 27 games this season, compared to 31 through 27 games in 2014, the Braves’ 118 runs before Wednesday were 22 more than they scored through the same number of games a year ago.
“It’s more because we’ve been able to put a lineup out there that puts the ball in play,” Braves manager Fredi Gonzalez said. “I think that (improvement with runners in scoring position) is a byproduct of that, of not striking out. The (runs per game), we’ve only played roughly 30 games.
“But I believe that the other thing, like getting runners in from third, is a byproduct of putting the ball in play.”
The most glaring difference in these Braves has indeed been their performance with runners on base – getting them over, getting them in, in baseball parlance – and particularly their at-bats with runners in scoring position.
Last year’s team struggled mightily in most aspects of situational hitting, but was particularly dreadful when it came to getting runners to second or third base and stranding them there.
The early home-run pace of last year’s team also slowed considerably, as it finished in a tie with Boston for 22nd in the majors with 123 homers. Meanwhile, their strikeout rate remained prolific and the Braves finished with the fourth-most whiffs in the majors (1,369), after striking out 1,384 times in 2013 to tie for third-most.
Before Wednesday, the Braves had the third-fewest strikeouts (169) in the majors.
While their home runs have been down, the Braves have not been the light-hitting team many expected. Entering Wednesday three Atlanta hitters ranked in the National League’s top 15 in slugging percentage among players with at least 50 plate appearances: Kelly Johnson was ninth at .578, A.J. Pierzynski (.541) was 13th, and Freeman (.534) was 15th. Also, Cameron Maybin (.462) was 34th.
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