It wouldn’t be fair to lay this at the feet of Aaron Blair because this often is what happens with young pitchers. They can make a mistake in the minors and still draw a pop-up. They make a mistake in the majors and the ball screams off the bat and flies 400 feet in a millisecond like something off NASA’s assembly line.
“Take some deep breaths, try to make some pitches,” Blair said he told himself Thursday after a 30-second therapy session on the mound with Braves pitching coach Roger McDowell.
“Obviously the next pitch, I didn’t make a good pitch, and it went over the fence.”
Walk. Two-run homer.
Walk. Two-run homer.
Hit batter. Two-run homer.
This is what a meltdown looks like. Blair, arguably the Braves’ top pitching prospect, was not the only reason the Braves lost to San Francisco 6-0 on Thursday afternoon at Turner Field. The “0” eliminates any chance to win.
Offensively challenged teams can crush the souls of even veteran pitchers, let alone the young ones that comprise this team’s rotation.
It’s a group effort, as we say.
It's a "process," as they say.
But it’s fair to ask if the Braves have made the best decisions recently when it comes to Blair’s career.
The organization has committed to riding things out this season with a young pitching staff. But after seeing Blair allow nine runs in 1 1/3 innings to Pittsburgh and concluding — probably accurately — that he was going to require some time to develop following a 7.19 ERA start to his major league career, the Braves sent him to Triple-A Gwinnett on May 18.
Question No. 1: If this season is about riding things out and letting kids learn, why send him down?
Blair was in Gwinnett for only 10 days. That amounted to one start — a three-inning start, at that. Then he was summoned May 28. Why? Because the Braves needed an emergency starter Saturday after interim manager Brian Snitker exhausted his bullpen against Milwaukee three days earlier and he used scheduled starter Casey Kelly.
Question No. 2: Once a team makes a decision to send a prospect back down, is it wise to bring him back so soon? Because notwithstanding that Blair looked fine against Miami (allowing five hits and two runs in 5 2/3 innings), do you run the risk of damaging his confidence?
When asked after Thursday’s game if Blair would’ve benefited from more time with Gwinnett before being recalled, Snitker said, “Maybe. Probably in a perfect world everything goes really smooth, and he gets another start down there. But at some point you still have to do it here. It’s not a mechanical flaw. It’s just the experience of knowing what he has to do and getting locked in at this level.”
Baseball America and ESPN both list Blair among the Braves’ top four prospects and their No. 1 or 2 pitcher (with lefthander Sean Newcomb). He was opposed Thursday by Madison Bumgarner, a three-time All-Star and three-time World Series winner.
For four innings, the game was scoreless. What a storyline.
Then came the painful market correction.
Blair walked Gregor Blanco to open the fifth. Then Bumgarner (pitcher) crushed the first pitch he saw over the left-center field wall to make the score 2-0.
In Blair’s defense, Bumgarner is not your typical light-hitting pitcher. It was the 13th homer of his career and second of the season. (Amusing side note: Bumgarner would be tied for third on the Braves in home runs this season.).
Still, Blair clearly was thrown by Bumgarner’s home run. He walked the next batter, Denard Span. McDowell visited the mound in an attempt to settle his young pitcher. It didn’t work. The next pitch Blair threw was crushed by Joe Panik over the right field wall. That made the score 4-0.
Blair stepped off the mound and attempted to compose himself.
“I was just trying to slow the game down, get back into a groove,” he said. “Unfortunately it just never happened for me.”
The next batter, Matt Duffy, was hit by a pitch. The next batter, Buster Posey, hit the Giants’ third consecutive first-pitch, two-run homer to make the score 6-0.
Snitker came out to sweep up the ashes.
“He was battling his way through the game until then, and then it just left,” Snitker said. “The roof caved in really quick.”
Snitker said Blair is merely going through “on-the-job training.” If at some point his performance meets expectations, this will be viewed a learning experience in a miserable season. But the view today isn’t good.
