The Braves are a losing team. That doesn’t mean they don’t have winning players.
Catcher A.J. Pierzysnki won a World Series championship with the White Sox. Shortstop Erick Aybar played in four AL division series and one ALCS with the Angels. Outfielder Kelly Johnson played in the World Series with the Mets last season, one of his seven postseason series. Right fielder Nick Markakis played in an ALCS with the Orioles.
“There’s a lot of guys on that team that have won and are proud of winning,” Braves manager Fredi Gonzalez said. “Believe me, they feel it every night.”
Yet even with those seasoned players who were part of winning teams, the Braves set a franchise record for April losses (17) on Wednesday. And they still had three games left to play this month.
Pierzynski probably is the most outspoken leader on the team. He said he hasn’t sensed that the Braves are slacking in any way, which in some ways makes their struggles more upsetting.
“It’s hard to explain because we can’t figure out what to do to change anything,” Pierzynski said. “Everyone does their work, everyone goes about it the right way, everyone is positive. But we’re just not winning games. There’s no one thing you can point to. It always seems like it’s something different every night.
“That’s the most frustrating part is that you can’t just be like, ‘Oh, we can just hit better, we can just field better, we can just pitch better, we can just run the bases better.’ Something different always pops up every night and that’s the hardest part to swallow.”
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