NEW YORK – After being swept at Philadelphia and having an off day Monday in New York, the Braves had even more time to think about the disappointing 6-12 start to their season when their Tuesday night series opener against the Mets got rained out.
But it wasn’t as if any of them was panicking or thinking about jumping off the Triborough Bridge. The Braves, with much the same cast of position players and a lesser starting rotation, started 0-9 and 9-29 a year ago before eventually turning things around, winning 50 of their last 97 games including 20 of the final 30.
“Hopefully those balls we hit hard in Philly will actually fall (for hits) here,” Freeman said in the visitor’s clubhouse Tuesday at Citi Field. “We all wanted to get off to a better start; everybody (outside the team) is talking about the rebuild and asking us where are you? We signed all these guys and people expected us to get off to a better start, and we wanted to get off to a better start. And now we’re dealing with the questions of ‘where are you guys now in the rebuild?’ and that’s the last thing we wanted to deal with in the first three weeks of the season.
“We were hoping we would get off to a better start so people wouldn’t have to ask those questions that we’ve been listening to for the last couple of years. But that comes with it, and all we had to do was play better baseball. That first week we couldn’t catch the ball, we were making errors and we couldn’t hit. It was just a recipe for disaster. And then we played better, then … it’s been pretty much a rollercoaster this year – you lose five then win five, lose six.
“Hopefully this is the start of the six-game winning streak now.”
Freeman has been one of baseball's top three hitters this season, Matt Kemp got off to a fast start before a 10-day stint on the disabled list, veteran newcomer Brandon Phillips has hit .343 with five doubles, two homers and a team-high nine RBIs, and Tyler Flowers has hit .375 with a .425 OBP. But several other Braves regulars have struggled mightily and the bullpen has a 5.19 ERA and has blown more saves (four) than it's converted (three).
Brian Snitker took over as interim manager last year when the Braves were 9-28 and Fredi Gonzalez got fired. The Braves showed so much improvement under Snitker that he got the full-time managerial job after the season, the team opting to retain him rather than hire Bud Black or Ron Washington, the other finalists for the job. Snitker routinely praised the Braves last season for how hard they played, how they prepared every day even after the brutal start.
“I still feel that way about these guys,” he said Tuesday. “The preparation’s good, the enthusiasm’s good, as you can see. I mean, everybody’s playing the game the right way. They’re getting after it. I think if we just handle this, we’ll be alright. We’ll come out of it and things will start hitting on all cylinders in favor of us. Balls will find a gap and balls will get under the (opponents’) glove and things like that.
“So I don’t feel bad about what’s going on, I don’t feel like you need to blow anything up. We’ve just got to stay the course and grind it out every day.”
The Braves had a five-game losing streak to drop to 1-6, then a five-game winning streak including a four-game sweep of the Padres in the first home series at SunTrust Park to get to .500, and now they’re on a six-game losing streak after being swept at home by the Nationals and on the road by the Phillies.
“No one is not confident in this clubhouse,” Freeman said. “It’s the same group of guys pretty much that were scoring 5 ½ runs a game last year at the end. Our starting pitching has been phenomenal, it’s just the guys – we need to start scoring more runs. We were all feeling pretty good, and then …. baseball happens. Now we’ve got to chase it back.”
