After his Braves struck out 14 times in eight innings against David Price, and went homerless for the 15th consecutive game – a major league Wild Card Era record – and lost for the seventh straight time and 16th time in their first 20 games, something only two Braves teams had done in a century, manager Fredi Gonzalez mainly tried to point out the positives.
The Braves got thumped 11-4 as Red Sox completed a two-game sweep at Turner Field, and the two teams flew to Boston afterward to play two more Wednesday and Thursday at Fenway Park.
“That first inning was tough,” Gonzalez said of a four-run first against young Matt Wisler, including a three-run homer by Travis Shaw. “But I’m proud of the young man, he gave us four solid innings after that…. I thought the bullpen did a nice job keeping it close there until the ninth inning just kind of unraveled on us.”
The Red Sox got five runs and six hits, including five extra-base hits, off Ryan Weber in the ninth.
As for the Braves, they once again didn’t have any extra-base hits. Eight singles. They hit two home runs on opening day and have just one homer in 19 games since, including none since Drew Stubbs hit one April 10.
Before Tuesday there were 57 major league players with more homers than the Braves had as a team.
“The approach is good,” Gonzalez said. “We’re not all of a sudden going to be the Blake Street Bombers. We’ve got a good approach at the plate, we’re getting singles. The home run stuff – you can’t teach that. There’s not a drill, there’s no extra work for that, for the power. But I like our approach and I hope our guys stay in the approach.”
After starting the season with nine consecutive losses, then winning four in a row, the Braves have dropped their past seven games. They scored twice in the ninth inning to make it their first game with more than three runs during their current skid.
A radio reporter noted that his team still seemed to be playing with a lot of “passion and energy.”
Gonzalez replied, “We have that. There’s a lot of things a manager can control, and one of them is to play the game the right way and play with energy and passion, and these guys have that. You scratch your head and come in here every afternoon and try to figure out how we’re going to get out of this, but it never crosses my mind to go in there and turn a table over and yell and scream, because these guys give you everything they have every single night, and it’s tough to get upset.
“You do get upset, but it’s hard to get upset with the team over lack of hustle or lack of energy, because they give you that ever night. And sometimes we fall short by a run or two, and sometimes there’s game like this that get out of hand. But they give you everything they have every single night, and considering the record I’m proud of that.”
One thing Gonzalez is tired of hearing about is the Braves’ rugged early schedule and the many elite pitchers they’ve faced.
“The quality of pitching is good, but we’ve got quality hitters also,” he said. “You lose (Ender) Inciarte, who is one of your professional hitters, in the second game of the season. (Erick) Aybar looks like he’s coming around a little bit. (Freddie) Freeman is starting to pick up some steam. We’ve got professional hitters also.
“I always talk about not everybody is Cy Young, and sometimes you’ve got to beat Cy Young. I know the schedule’s tough and I’m tired of hearing about the schedule being tough. Shoot, it ain’t going to get any easier. We’ve got to keep grinding at-bats and we can’t all of a sudden call Major League Baseball and change the schedule because it’s too tough on us. Shoot, they’re lined up to play us right now, the way we’re playing.”
