If Sean Newcomb stays in the Braves’ starting rotation long enough, eventually he’ll get a run or two of offensive support. But that’s something the rookie has yet to experience in two major league starts including a 5-0 Braves loss Friday night in a series opener at SunTrust Park.
Newcomb was good Friday, after pitching exceptionally well in his Sunday major league debut against the Mets. The common denominator of the two outings: The Braves failed to score while he was in either game.
After totaling 29 runs while winning two of three at Nationals Park this week to clinch a road series against the National League East leaders, the Braves got back home and got back to sputtering offensively in their fourth consecutive loss at SunTrust Park. They’ve totaled just three runs in those four losses.
Newcomb pitched six innings and gave up five hits, three runs and four walks with three strikeouts.
“It didn’t go the way I wanted it to, but I was kind of able to makes some pitches, get out of a couple jams,” said Newcomb, who in his debut against the Mets gave up just four hits, one unearned run and two walks with seven strikeouts in 6 1/3 innings.
After his two starts, he has an 0-2 record despite an impressive 2.19 ERA.
“He set the bar pretty high after that first one,” Braves manager Brian Snitker said, “and I thought that (Friday’s performance) was pretty good. This is a hot team, these (Marlins) have been playing good and scoring a lot of runs.”
The Braves mustered just four hits in nine innings against Marlins starter Dan Strailey and three relievers.
“(Newcomb) pitched his butt off, man,” Braves second baseman Brandon Phillips said. “It was nice to see, but it sucks that the bats didn’t get going. I didn’t do nothing. We didn’t hit Dan Strailey. He made some mistakes today and we didn’t take advantage of it. But when it comes to (Newcomb), he did a great job and didn’t have much to show for it.”
The Braves have lost seven of their past 10 at SunTrust and scored four runs or fewer in eight of the last nine in that stretch. They’ve scored three or fewer in each of their past six home games including one or no runs in every game during the four-game home skid. They have six or fewer hits in each of their four consecutive home losses.
They went to Washington and beat up on Stephen Strasburg, Tanner Roark and a host of Nationals relievers. To repeat, 29 runs in three games.
Then after a day off Thursday, they returned to SunTrust and picked up where the left off against the Mets. With poor offense. In the ballpark that some had dubbed the New Launching Pad for the way balls have flown over the fences in some early home games.
“When we were in D.C. we had the same approach that we had today, but we didn’t take advantage of the mistakes (Friday),” Phillips said. “Dan Strailey kept the ball down, but he did make some mistakes. Every pitcher makes mistakes. It just didn’t go our way, but I tell you one thing, the young kid threw the hell out of the ball today.
“We had a day off yesterday and we just seemed real flat, so hopefully we can wake up a little bit tomorrow.”
The only ball that flew out in fair territory Friday was one that Braves-killer Justin Bour blasted over the center-field fence with two out in the fourth inning, which pushed the Marlins’ lead to 2-0 after they had scored once in the first inning on a Dee Gordon leadoff single and Christian Yelich’s one-out double.
“I was trying to get it away,” Newcomb said of the fastball to Bour. “It was up and he was just able to get it. He extended, he’s strong.”
Newcomb retired 10 consecutive batters before Bour’s line-drive home run, and he retired the next four batters after the homer. But in the sixth, the Marlins got consecutive singles to start the sixth inning, neither of them hit hard.
Newcomb walked three of the next four batters, but induced a double-play grounder from J.T. Realmuto during that span to limit the damage to one run.
“I liked Newcomb, thought he did a really good job,” Snitker said. “The one inning he got in trouble, a couple of mis-hit balls to load the bases, and I really like how he went after Realmuto in that situation and got the double play. Thought he did really good. I liked what I saw there out of him. He competed very well.”
The Braves played without Matt Kemp, who was out of the lineup after leaving the series finale at Nationals Park with hamstring tightness. But the Braves also didn’t get much from the top of the order, where Endier Inciarte, Brandon Phillips and Nick Markakis combined for 10 hits Wednesday but only one Friday.
Atlanta had leadoff hits in three of the first five innings and failed to score. Not only that, the Braves only had three at-bats with runners in scoring position in that span – all of those after the leadoff double by Inciarte to start the game.
After leadoff singles by Johan Camargo in the third inning and Matt Adams in the fifth, the Braves failed to even advance the runner to second base.
Bour’s 17th home run of the season was his 11th homer in his past 28 games against the Braves including three in the past four games. He has a career-high 11 home runs in 35 games against the Braves, while the other team he has more than five against is the Nationals, whom he has tagged for eight homers in 167 plate appearances (46 games).
Bour came into the game batting .306 with a .630 slugging percentage and 1.019 OPS in 34 games against the Braves.
