Escobar blunder costly in Braves' fourth straight loss

Said Braves pitcher Jair Jurrjens: "I don't know if he didn't know how many outs there were, if it was like a mental mistake. I don't know what to say about that."

Cox chewed out Escobar and criticized the team's performance in a postgame clubhouse meeting after a fourth consecutive loss dropped the Braves (8-9) to last place in the National League East, a half-game behind Washington.

Escobar was being consoled by veteran reliever Takashi Saito as media entered the clubhouse. As a reporter approached a dejected Escobar to ask about the play, the shortstop fired his jersey into his locker and shouted a word in Spanish.

Escobar told a Braves official that he didn't want to talk to reporters. It was left to teammates to explain the seemingly inexplicable: why a runner would go three-quarters of the way down the third-base line on a fly ball with one out.

"When something like happens on the field, when you make a mental mistake or whatever you want to call it, you kind of brush it off if we're hitting .350 as a team," catcher David Ross said. "But when we're scrapping to get a run across and really scuffling at the plate, and getting good pitching, you really want the opportunities you have. You want them to stand up.

"When you do stuff like that, it's just real deflating."

The Braves have hit .192 and scored 14 runs in the past seven games, and went homerless in six of them. Saturday they were 1-for-9 with runners in scoring position and left 11 runners on base.

In Friday's series opener, they made four errors, went 2-for-8 with runners in scoring position, and left nine on base in a 5-2 loss.

"We're our own worst enemies," said third baseman Chipper Jones, who left in third inning with a hip injury he expects to sideline him several games. "Last night was a brutal game from a defensive standpoint, and we all know what happened today."

He was referring to The Play in the fifth, when the Braves had runners on second and third with one out, after Escobar walked and Martin Prado doubled.

Troy Glaus lined out to Jeff Francoeur in the right-center gap, and everyone including Francoeur assumed Escobar would tag and score on the play. Everyone except Escobar, who was down the third-base line when Francoeur caught the ball, despite third-base coach Brian Snitker and others shouting "back!"

Escobar looked oblivious, then bewildered. He didn't bother trying to get back to third, and was out when Francoeur's throw to second baseman Alex Cora was relayed to third baseman David Wright.

Wright threw to second to double off Prado, who tagged up as the catch was made and headed to third, assuming Escobar would tag and score.

"Prado was tagging up," Cox said. "It was obvious the runner at third was going to score easily. Frenchy was throwing to third."

Said Ross, "I don’t think anybody heard what [Escobar] was maybe [thinking] ... I don't know. You have to ask him. But it's real frustrating, deflating, all that stuff."

Someone asked Cox what his shortstop was doing.

"I don't know," he said. "I've never seen that. I've seen them [do that] on low line drives. But not one in the gap."