DETROIT– Before Friday's series opener against the Tigers degenerated into a lopsided loss and whiff-a-thon for Atlanta hitters against Anibal Sanchez, the Braves had several chances to take an early lead.
They wasted them, underscoring a weakness that’s been overshadowed by their early season home runs: The Braves haven’t hit well with runners in scoring position. Again.
They went 0-for-5 with runners in scoring position in Friday's 10-0 loss to Detroit, dropping their average in those situations to .215, third-lowest in the NL. Last season, the Braves and Cubs tied with a league-worst .231 average with runners in scoring position.
“It hasn’t been pretty all the time,” Braves hitting coach Greg Walker said Wednesday in Colorado, speaking of the offense in general. “I think one thing that’s going to get better is our hitting with runners in scoring position. It’s been horrific so far.”
On Friday, it was a scoreless game when Chris Johnson doubled with one out in the second inning. Evan Gattis struck out, B.J. Upton walked, and Juan Francisco struck out to end the inning.
There still was no score when Andrelton Simmons doubled with one out in the third inning. He went to third on a passed ball before Dan Uggla struck out and Justin Upton grounded out to end the inning.
The Tigers scored four runs in the bottom of the third against Paul Maholm, then put the game away with six runs in the fourth.
But before any runs were scored Friday, the Braves went 0-for-4 with three strikeouts with runners in scoring position, a stat that demonstrated two problematic areas of their offense: They’ve hit poorly with runners in scoring position, and they strike out at an alarming rate.
Uggla was 0-for-11 with six strikeouts with runners in scoring position before Saturday, and B.J. Upton was 1-for-18 with eight strikeouts.
Sanchez collected a Tigers-record 17 strikeouts in eight innings, and the Braves’ 18 strikeouts were their most since an 18-K game against the Phillies on May 6, 2011, when Cliff Lee fanned 16 in seven innings.
“You have to turn the page,” Braves manager Fredi Gonzalez said before Saturday’s game. “All of us were upset (Friday). Nobody wants to get put in the record books for something like that. So everybody gets upset, and you have to go out today and get good plate appearances and go out and win.”
Gonzalez was asked if it at any point in Friday’s game it seemed as if the Braves’ approach worsened to where the outcome of some at-bats seemed inevitable.
“No, I don’t think so,” he said. “These guys are professionals. Sanchez got stronger and stronger. His changeup was acting like a split-finger (pitch), and his command was good, that ball was running back. I think maybe he got better and stronger and more confident. But I don’t think your suggestion of us throwing at-bats away, I don’t think we did that as a group.
“You’ve got to tip your hat. You fight as best as you can fight, and sometimes you don’t look like you are.”
It was the third time Braves hitters had 16 or more strikeouts in 22 games. They struck out nine more times in Saturday’s 7-4 loss to give them 27 strikeouts in two days against Detroit and 84 strikeouts in their past eight games, including six losses.
“We’ll try to get better at our weaknesses,” Walker said last week, “but I’m not going to tell Justin Upton to choke up and spread out (in his stance) with two strikes. If there’s a man on third with less than two (outs) and he’s scuffling – hopefully he doesn’t – then he might have to back the ball up and just accept a sac fly, things like that. Become just a little bit more conservative.
“There’s times and places for conservatism, but we’re not going to turn our big guys into choke, poke and hope guys. We’re just not going to do it. Spread out and choke up — it’s just not our style. And I don’t think (general manager) Frank Wren or anybody in the Braves organization wants us to do that.
“If you look at our team so far, there’s been ugly moments, but there’s some real dynamic moments. I mean some stuff off-the-charts dynamic.”
