Their hot start to the season is a distant vision now that the Braves have slipped into a mediocrity that their flawed parts seemed to foretell before the season began.
The Braves lost 8-4 to the Reds on Saturday for their fourth defeat in their past five games. The Braves are 5-12 since starting the season 6-1 and lately have shown the telltale signs of an inconsistent team.
When the starting pitching is good enough, the Braves often don’t hit. When they hit, it sometimes doesn’t matter because the starters aren’t good enough. The bullpen has more bad nights than good ones.
All of that happened against the Reds on Saturday.
Left-hander Eric Stults was touched for six runs over his final four innings of work. The Braves couldn’t generate much offense. And relief pitcher Donnie Veal gave up a two-run homer in the ninth to Zack Cozart that snuffed any realistic hopes of a Braves comeback.
The Braves haven’t won back-to-back games since beating the Mets on April 10 and 11.
“There is no cure-all in baseball,” Braves catcher A.J. Pierzynski said. “It doesn’t work like, oh, this one person or this one thing happens. That’s not the way it works. We’ve just got to play and keep grinding and get things turned around.”
The Braves (11-13) managed not even one hard-hit ball against Reds starter Mike Leake in the series opener. They had just two singles and four base runners against him over eight innings.
After pitcher Mike Foltynewicz’s unlikely two-run double saved the Braves in Friday’s victory, they were back to scuffling Saturday. They didn’t get a hit against Reds starter Jason Marquis until shortstop Andrelton Simmons’ hit up the middle deflected off of Marquis (3-1) for an infield single to lead off the fifth inning.
Kelly Johnson’s sharp line drive in the second inning hit Marquis in the forearm and caused some swelling, but he stayed in the game and earned the win.
“I played with Jason, and he’s one of the toughest guys around,” Braves outfielder Cameron Maybin said. “He’s a no-excuse-making type of guy. Something has to be broke for him to come out of the game. So I wasn’t surprised. That’s just the kind of guy he is. He’s a bulldog out there.”
After Simmons’ single in the fifth, Maybin finally got the Braves on the board with a two-run homer that cut Cincinnati’s lead to 4-2. The Reds quickly extended that advantage when Marlon Byrd led off the sixth inning with a home run against Stults, and Todd Frazier added another solo homer in the seventh for a 6-2 Cincinnati lead.
Maybin also drove in the Braves’ other run with a single in the ninth, but by then Cozart’s homer against Veal had put the game out of reach.
“When we score and you let the other team come back and score, it’s hard to keep doing that,” Braves manager Fredi Gonzalez said.
The Braves tried to rally in the bottom of the seventh inning. Johnson led off with a single and scored on a double to the right-field corner by Simmons.
Braves second baseman Jace Peterson followed with a sharp grounder that hit Simmons, who was leading off of second base. Simmons was out, Peterson took first and Jumbo Diaz relieved Marquis to face Maybin.
Maybin fell behind 0-2 before working the count to full but stuck out. Pinch hitter Phil Gosselin singled against Diaz before Reds left-hander Tony Cingrani came on and struck out Nick Markakis to end the threat.
While the Braves couldn’t do much against Marquis, the Reds pounded out 11 hits in seven innings against Stults (1-2). He was sharp early but allowed 10 base runners and two home runs over his final four innings.
Stults ran into trouble when Jay Bruce ripped a two-out triple to left in the fourth inning.
Johnson chased Bruce’s line drive and tried to make a jumping catch but missed. The ball caromed off the wall to center fielder Maybin, whose throw to third baseman Alberto Callaspo wasn’t in time to get Bruce.
“Kelly got back as fast as he could and I think he thought the ball was there, so you can’t blame him for his effort,” Stults said. “Early on in the game, that was probably one of the mistakes I made. I left an elevated fastball up, and Bruce can drive a lot of balls the other way. A good piece of hitting right there, but I’m not really frustrated by that.”
Stults said he was more frustrated when Brandon Phillips, the next hitter, got a single on a grounder that Simmons couldn’t corral at the edge of the outfield grass. That hit scored Bruce, and then Phillips stole second base and later scored on Brayan Pena’s flared single to center.
The Reds added two runs in the fifth when Cozart and Joey Votto hit back-to-back singles, and Bruce knocked another two-run triple to score them.
Pierzynski saw his majors-leading 13-game hit streak come to an end. He went 0-for-4 and came up short on two chances for base hits: Byrd made a diving catch of Pierzynski’s fly ball to shallow left field in the fourth inning and Bruce slid to snag Pierzynski’s line drive in the sixth.
“I guess tonight I ran into some bad luck with a couple diving plays,” Pierzynski said. “There is nothing you can do about it.”
