The Braves won 6-3 on Tuesday on a night when more than half their hits were home runs. On Wednesday they hit no homers and lost 1-0. It's only April, but we're apt to see both these games replayed many times before October.
“I don’t think this a home-run-or-nothing team,” hitting coach Greg Walker said Wednesday. “At least I hope not. Home runs — with nothing else — don’t hold up.”
That's probably true. The old Earl Weaver blueprint, more in vogue in the big-swinging 21st century than ever, was to play for the three-run homer, which requires two men aboard. On Tuesday, the Braves moved only four runners beyond first base and nobody noticed because these bashers hoisted five home runs with nobody on.
Said Dan Uggla: “We’ve got a lot of guys in this lineup who are in scoring position when they step into the box.”
Uggla spoke minutes after he made the final out on a day when the Braves’ 10-game winning streak reached a docile end. They struck out 11 times. They were 0-for-1 with men in scoring position, which means they applied very little pressure. Their best chance fizzled when the plodding Juan Francisco was thrown out at home on Chris Johnson’s bloop double.
The Braves don’t care to characterize themselves as boom-or-bust because that sounds too much like all-or-nothing. (And, as Uggla said: “Teams without power are going to struggle against good pitching, too.”) Still, the early returns show that the Braves have hit 25 home runs in their 12 wins and been shut out in both losses.
This is how they were built, and if 12-2 is any measure — certainly it measures something — they were built well. But this brief set against Kansas City served to illustrate both a massive strength and a smaller weakness.
This will never be a run-manufacturing team. Entering Wednesday’s game, the Braves ranked first in the majors in homers, but only eighth in runs and ninth in on-base percentage. They had the third-most strikeouts and the 11th-best average with runners in scoring position in the 15-team National League. This is who we thought they’d be, and through 2 1/2 weeks it’s who they’ve been.
Walker noted that the Braves faced two right-handed Royals starters minus “our cleanup hitter (Freddie Freeman) and our Silver Slugger catcher (Brian McCann), and they’re both left-handers.” But those two don’t figure to change the 2013 Braves into the 1985 Cardinals when they return. The dynamics for this team have been set: lots of homers, lots of whiffs. Not that there’s anything wrong with that, and here’s why.
The other half of the Weaver Method was to have great starting pitching. Mike Minor worked six innings Wednesday and was touched for one soft run, and that made seven quality starts for the Braves in the past nine games. Think of it this way: After 14 games, this team has yet to lose when it scores.
Said manager Fredi Gonzalez: “Offense is going to go up and down, depending on who you face.” A team that pitches well, however, will win many more than it loses. Not long ago, starting pitching was seen as the least of the Braves’ conspicuous strengths. So far it has been the best part of this team, and that includes the big hitting.
To their credit, the Braves didn’t grouse much afterward about umpire Doug Eddings’ generous strike zone. (It was generous both ways: The Royals struck out eight times; neither side drew a walk.) Said Gonzalez: “It is what it is. Dougie’s one of the best … one of the better umpires in the game.”
As we note the recalibration — from “best” to “better” — we should also listen to Uggla, who turned to register an objection after being called out on strikes in the seventh, but managed not to be ejected. “He’s a good umpire,” Uggla said. “As long as you (complain) in a respectful manner, you should be allowed to voice your opinion.”
One night earlier, the Braves won with four runs — three of them solo homers — in their final at-bat. On Wednesday, the last at-bat went thusly: Justin Upton struck out swinging, and Evan Gattis and Uggla struck out looking. It happens. It will happen again with these Braves.
And that’s OK. The Weaver Method, forged in the ’60s and ’70s, endures because it happens to work. A hard game gets easier when you can hit the ball over the wall, and it gets downright simple when your pitching is so imposing the other team has to shut you out to win.
