The Braves broke out of the most recent of their many offensive funks on Wednesday with walks, singles, sacrifices and so-called productive outs.
Because it’s been rare for the Braves to win so creatively this season, the post-game scene had manager Fredi Gonzalez fielding questions about winning with small ball.
“That is always the key,” Gonzalez said after the team closed out a 3-3 homestand. “I know it’s hard for our club because we strike out a lot. I think early on in the year, we won a lot of games without the home run. We can do it.”
But the Braves really hadn’t defeated the Phillies without a home run. They put away the Phillies to win 7-4 with manufactured runs but they surged to a 3-1 lead when B.J. Upton smashed a two-run homer in the second inning.
The Braves open a weekend series in Miami Friday night midst some hand-wringing about the team’s inability to play small ball. But they’ve also been hurt by their lack of long balls. Just like last season, the Braves strike out like a power-hitting team except this year, it’s without the power.
The Braves are 52-19 in games in which they homer and 31-48 when they don’t. There have been a lot of droughts: Entering Thursday’s play, the team ranked eighth in the NL with 113 home runs after it topped the league with 181 homers in 2013.
The Braves trail Washington by seven games in the NL East and were a half-game behind Milwaukee for the final wild-card spot entering Thursday play. The lineup’s makeup suggests the Braves are more likely to go on a homer binge than suddenly become adept at station-to-station offense.
“When we won the five games in a row (in August), we were driving the ball all over the field and doing what we have to do to win,” Justin Upton said. “I think for us going down the stretch, it’s going to have to be a hybrid of both. Sometimes we are going to have to manufacture a few runs and sometimes we will get hot and hit a few homers. We have to do a little bit of both if we are going to do this.”
The five-game win streak Upton referred to included 10 Braves homers. They hit just two homers while losing all eight games during a late August road trip a week before that.
That’s how it’s gone this season. Most of the hitters with power profiles are far off their home-run pace from last season and the hitters who flashed power in 2013 also aren’t hitting as many.
Gonzalez said that doesn’t necessarily mean the team’s power hitters will go on homer streaks over the final 22 games. Such thinking wouldn’t be smart for the Braves.
“The three-run homer doesn’t come to the ballpark every day, especially when you are facing playoff-type teams or in the playoffs,” Gonzalez said. “You need to keep the line moving because you are facing (ace pitchers) in the playoffs and those home runs don’t come.”
Among Braves regulars, only Justin Upton (team-high 26 homers) and Evan Gattis (21) are hitting homers at a higher rate this year than they did in 2013. Jason Heyward (11), Freddie Freeman (17), Andrelton Simmons (7), and Chris Johnson (6) have seen their home-run rates decrease significantly from last season. B.J. Upton (10) is hitting home runs at about the same rate as last season but nowhere near as often as he did with Tampa Bay from 2010-12 (average: 26 per year).
With 1,190 strikeouts, third-most in the NL, entering Thursday, the Braves are threatening to break the Atlanta franchise strikeout record for a fourth straight year. But Justin Upton said strikeouts shouldn’t prevent the team from looking for pitches to hit out of the park.
“You have your chances to take your shots,” he said. “You’ve got to take good at-bats, but obviously sometimes you get situations like 3-0 counts and you are looking for your pitch.”
In theory, walks and singles are easier to produce than home runs. While Gonzalez said he doesn’t believe his hitters go up to the plate looking for home runs, he also recognizes the nature of his lineup.
“That’s who we are as a team,” he said. “We have to live through some peaks and valleys.”
