Homer drought not the primary concern for sluggish Braves
NEW YORK — The Braves took a four-game losing streak into Thursday night's series finale against the Mets, and Braves manager Fredi Gonzalez was asked before the game for biggest difference had been for the team between its nine-game winning streak through Saturday and the skid that began Sunday.
“When we were winning those nine straight games we were getting the runners in,” Gonzalez said. “Man on third base, we’d get the ground ball with the infield back, (or) get the fly ball. Productive outs. We were getting the two-out hits. That formula works. If you get productive outs and hits with two outs, and if your team can hold opposition down, you’ve got a pretty good chance to win.
“When you don’t do that, even if your team holds the opposition down, if you’re not scoring any runs you’re going to lose two or three in a row, or four in a row.”
The Braves went 0-for-7 with runners in scoring position in Wednesday’s 4-1 loss to the Mets, failing to score in the seventh, eighth or ninth innings after putting two runners on base with less than two outs in each of those innings.
They were 5-for-38 with runners in scoring position during the losing streak before Thursday, and had eight runs and no homers in four games. Rather remarkably, the Braves had just one homer in 344 at-bats over their past 10 games entering the series finale against the Mets.
Gonzalez doesn’t believe hitting home runs is important the way that getting timely hits and stringing together multiple hits and walks during an inning is important, although he added, “Once in a while you want to hit a three-run homer so you can catch up.”
Still, the irony of having his team’s lack of homers pointed out to him was not lost on the Braves manager.
“I remember being asked (early in the season), ‘How come all your runs come by home runs?’” he said. “So now it’s, we’re not hitting enough home runs. So I don’t know.”
It’s one of those things. Just got to get back to swinging the bat, and when we get opportunities with runners in scoring position, not miss those. It’s really simple: When you get opportunities to score and you score, you’ve got a chance to win. When you get opportunities to score and you don’t score, you’ve got a good chance to lose that game.”
The Braves were tied for sixth in the National League in home runs with 77, and 24 of those homers came in a dizzying 16-game stretch from April 9 through April 26. The homer paced slowed significantly after that, but the Braves still had 69 over a 70-game span from April 9 through June 25.
But since then they had just three homers in their past 14 games and 480 at-bats before Thursday, and scored three runs or fewer in half of those games. They were 9-5 with a 3.25 ERA in that stretch.
“We’ve just got to get back to swinging the bat, and when we get opportunities with runners in scoring position, not miss those,” Gonzalez said. “It’s really simple: When you get opportunities to score and you score, you’ve got a chance to win. When you get opportunities to score and you don’t score, you’ve got a good chance to lose that game. I don’t think I’m reinventing the wheel or anything.”
They won five consecutive homerless games during the winning streak, and their batting average with runners in scoring position was below .200 for most of the nine-game winning streak. But as Gonzalez noted, the Braves were otherwise strong in situational hitting during that surge, sacrificing runners over, driving them in with a groundout or a sac fly after getting a runner to third with less than two outs.
Those were the kinds of things they repeatedly failed to do during four losses before Thursday, and during earlier struggles this season.
“Early in the game they’re playing the infield back and you sneak a run in, because they’re playing the infield back,” Gonzalez said. “Or they’re playing the infield in and you drive a fly ball with a man on third and get a run. And those things add up. Those things add up without hitting a home run.”
