For those wondering how long this Aaron Harang magic could possibly last? The answer came about 7:40 p.m. on the final day of April.
That’s about the time Marlins center fielder Marcell Ozuna put a charge into a 2-2 Harang fastball and deposited it over the right field fence for a three-run exclamation point to a four-run inning and a 9-3 romp Wednesday night.
With one swing, Ozuna scored as many runs off Harang as he had given up in his first five starts of the season. And Harang’s night, as well as this series, continued to go downhill from there.
The Braves lost these first two games to the Marlins by a combined score of 18-3. It was the first time the Braves have given up nine or more earned runs, while giving up 13 or more hits, since back-to-back losses at Coors Field on Sept. 23 and 24, 2006, according to Baseball-reference.com. Kyle Davis and Chuck James started those games.
“We just got our butts whipped the past two nights, plain and simple,” said Braves third baseman Chris Johnson. “There’s no really other way to describe it.”
Harang, who entered the game with the best ERA in the major leagues at 0.85 and was one of the best feel-good stories of the season, left with nine earned runs to his name in 4 2/3 innings. That more than tripled his ERA to 2.97.
Those nine earned runs were the most he had allowed in a start his entire 13-year career. And he’d just limited the Marlins to one run in six innings while striking out 11 of them in his last start.
So what came off as frustration as Harang was leaving the mound in the fifth inning, still talking to catcher Evan Gattis, was directed at the Marlins hitters.
“It was more just a baffling, like, ‘Where were these guys last week?’” Harang said. “They were way too comfortable. It seemed like they were all hitting like Ted Williams today.”
Facing the Braves for the second time in a week, the Marlins showed not only their adjustments to Braves pitchers but just how much better their lineup tends to hit at home. They started Tuesday night by roughing up Alex Wood for seven runs in five innings.
The Braves starters’ ERA, which was a majors’ leading 1.57 two days ago, is now 2.32.
Both Wood and Harang were pitching on six days’ rest, given multiple off days recently, and that might have had an effect.
“It didn’t feel as sharp as normal,” Harang said. “That’s a big change when you go from being on five days to all of a sudden you’re on seven days, back to a college rotation again. But…we were on a roll and you want to keep throwing the same guys out there because everybody is doing well, you can’t make those adjustments. You’ve just got to roll with it and figure it out.”
The Marlins pelted Harang for 10 hits, including two home runs, three doubles and a triple. That’s one more hit than Harang had allowed in first four starts combined since signing with the Braves. This is a pitcher who’s taken no-hitters into the seventh inning twice already this season.
On Wednesday night, the Marlins got their first hit four batters in and didn’t stop until Ozuna had homered on the fourth straight hit of the second inning. Harang had not allowed a home run all season before Ozuna’s home run in the second, and Christian Yelich followed with a two-run shot in the fourth.
Braves manager Fredi Gonzalez said home plate umpire Sean Barber wasn’t given Harang much leeway on the corners, and as a result, Harang had to come over the plate.
“He’s got to be so perfect, and I think early on in the game he wasn’t getting any corners,” Gonzalez said. “….I’m not blaming the umpire or anything but sometimes you get a guy that gives you an inch here, an inch there, or a pitch here, a pitch there. And it’s a little different ballgame.”
The Braves’ offensive problems showed up a little more with the starting staff struggling through the first two games of the series. The Braves have managed only one run on five hits against Marlins starters Jose Fernandez and Nathan Eovaldi. Justin Upton hit a two-run homer off Brad Hand in the ninth inning Wednesday, but by then the loss was a foregone conclusion.
“We’re getting beat on every aspect, not just Eovaldi and Fernandez,” Johnson said. “We’re big league hitters. We should be able to put some runs against these guys. They’re really, really good but at some point, especially with them being within our division we’ve got to try to figure them out. We’ve got to try to put some runs on the board. There’s no excuse for it.”
