DENVER – If the past two games at Coors Field weren't the absolute midseason nadir for Atlanta's offense, then it could be a long summer for the Braves and their fans.
The Braves mustered four hits in a 10-3 loss Thursday that gave them a four-game series split against the skidding Rockies, and were shut out on two hits through seven innings by previously winless starter Jhoulys Chacin.
What had been an ugly day for the Braves turned nasty in the eighth inning when catcher Gerald Laird had to be helped off the field after being hit in his facemask and right jaw by Corey Dickerson’s bat on his backswing. Reliever David Carpenter was then ejected after plunking Dickerson in the leg with the next pitch.
Laird said he was only shaken up and didn’t have any broken bones or cuts. He passed concussion tests administered after the game and was cleared to fly home with the team.
Rockies manager Walt Weiss, a former Braves shortstop, was also ejected after coming out of the dugout and yelling at Carpenter.
“I think he was a little upset that we hit Rutledge in the head with the 0-2 pitch,” Braves third baseman Chris Johnson said, referring to Braves pitcher Julio Teheran hitting Jeff Rutlege in Wednesday’s game. “Coming from an offensive standpoint, I know that’s not something you like when it’s 0-2 and guys are throwing up and in. He was upset.
“He was just yelling that they owe us two, they owe us two. That’s what he kept yelling.”
Rockies reliever Nick Masset and bench coach Tom Runnels were ejected in the ninth inning after Masset hit Braves catcher Evan Gattis with a pitch in the back of his left arm. Gattis dropped his bat and trotted to first as if nothing happened.
“I can understand Walt getting upset,” Braves manager Fredi Gonzalez said. “We hit Rutledge in the head yesterday, the ball got away and hit him in the head. And a couple of games before that I think we threw the ball in on…. We tried to throw the ball in on Dickerson; that’s where we want to get him out. And, you know, I can understand how he got upset.
“I don’t blame him one bit. I don’t think it was on purpose with Carpenter. I mean, the only one who knows that is Carp, but I don’t think it was on purpose.”
Carpenter said, “If you look at the at-bats he’s had the whole series, when balls have been out over the plate he’s hammered them pretty good. So we’re going to try to pound him in there. He took a decent hack at the one fastball I threw in there, cut in on him a little bit. I threw a slider, left it out a little bit and he fouled it off. Just tried to run another fastball in, ended up cutting on me and caught him.”
The Rockies were convinced Carpenter hit Dickerson intentionally.
“It was a two-strike slider on the backswing that I hit Laird,” Dickerson said. “It was an accident. I think they know that. But I think Carpenter thought it was on purpose and hit me with the next pitch.”
Rockies outfielder Michael Cuddyer, currently on the 15-day disabled list, minced no words: “I think it was one of the worst displays in major league baseball that I’ve ever seen. It was just total unprofessional. A play that happens in a game that a guy gets hurt on — are we going to start hitting guys for hitting a ground ball when a guy dives and breaks his shoulder?”
The sound and fury of the late innings overshadowed what had been a dismally quiet afternoon for Braves hitters, who were shut down for most of two games against a Rockies team that had been 1-11 with a 7.17 ERA in its previous 12.
The last three games of the series were a microcosm of a wildly inconsistent and frequently dysfunctional Braves offense, while also serving as a reminder that a pitching staff that was otherworldly during the Braves’ 17-7 start couldn’t be expected to maintain its early season pace, and hasn’t.
Chacin had a 5.35 ERA before Thursday, when he didn’t allow a hit against anyone other than Tommy La Stella. Chacin (1-4) gave up two hits in seven scoreless innings, with two walks and five strikeouts.
Ervin Santana (5-3) was charged with six runs and seven hits (including two homers) in 6 1/3 innings, falling to 1-3 in his past six starts, and Braves reliever Jordan Walden had his second troubling performance in as many appearances since returning from the disabled list Tuesday after missing more than a month with a strained hamstring.
Walden gave up two hits, two runs and a walk in two-thirds of an inning, after walking three of four batters faced Tuesday.
But the larger concern for the Braves has to be the offense, which couldn’t put together anything against unproven or entirely undistinguished Rockies starters in consecutive games at a hitting paradise.
“Well, that’s the way we are,” Gonzalez said. “That’s our club sometimes. We can look really good offensively and sometimes we have a tough time keeping the line moving.”
The Braves posted season-highs of 13 runs and 16 hits in Tuesday’s 13-10 win, then mustered just six runs and 11 hits in the last two games of the series, against a left-hander making his major league debut and against Chacin, who had a .286 opponents’ average and .384 opponents’ OBP at Coors Field before Thursday.
In each of the past two games, the Braves were shut out through the first seven innings. Tyler Matzek had a 4.05 ERA in Triple-A before being called up to make an emergency start Wednesday, when the left-hander took a perfect game through five innings and a two-hit shutout to the eighth inning against the Braves.
Chacin allowed fewer than three runs in only one of his previous seven starts, and never fewer than two. That was until Thursday, when the Braves didn’t get a runner to second base against him until La Stella’s leadoff double in the fifth. They never advanced a runner to third against Chacin.
The Braves trailed 8-0 before scoring three runs in the eighth against reliever Adam Ottavino on Jason Heyward’s line-drive RBI double off the right-field scoreboard and B.J. Upton’s two-run homer.
“We’ve got to get it back,” Johnson said of the offense. “It’s going to take some work. It’ll take some focus, and we’ve just got to buckle down and try to get it back. We’re a confident group, we know we’re going to break out at some point. We’ve just got to get it going.”
La Stella, who has seven multi-hit games in his first 13 major league games, was the only Brave to reach base through six innings Thursday, on a single in the second and his first double in the fifth. He’s hitting .378.
The Braves are 6-10 with a 4.87 ERA in their past 16 games, and the pitching that carried them when the offense sputtered earlier has come back to earth. Meanwhile, the offense continues to disappoint. And the rival Nationals have heated up and taken over first place in the National League East.
