A day after saying he didn’t think the Braves needed a team meeting, manager Fredi Gonzalez changed his mind and called a closed-door meeting before batting practice Tuesday in hopes of clearing players’ minds and ending a season-long four-game losing streak.
The Braves had squandered multiple scoring opportunities (3-for-20 with runners in scoring position) Monday night and made a couple of mental mistakes in a 5-4, 12-inning loss to the Marlins.
His message was to relax and to take advantage of the situation — the Braves were still 4 1/2 games up in the wild-card standings with 14 games to play entering Tuesday.
“If you had said in Orlando [in spring training] ‘Hey our goal is to make the playoffs and would you take a 4-1/2 game lead in September with 14 to go?’” Gonzalez said. “Everybody per man would raise their hand and say yes. OK, well, that’s where we’re at boys. Let’s go. And it’s fun.”
Two of the more vocal players in the meeting were Chipper Jones and David Ross, who stressed attention to detail.
“The tone of it was we’re in a good spot, but we’re not playing the consistent nine-inning kind of baseball that we all expect to,” Jones said. “It’s a pitch here, an at-bat there, it’s a play here. We need to get that mojo back.”
The last time the Braves had a closed-door meeting was June 5 after a loss in New York. They went on to win the next six games, including three against the Marlins. Jones and Ross called a players’ only meeting last Sept. 17 in New York after the Braves had lost eight of 13. They won the next three against the Mets.
This time, Jones stressed the importance of what just one win can do.
“One win will cure a lot of people’s angst, so to speak,” Jones said. “And then one win hopefully breeds some confidence and brings another win tomorrow, and then all of a sudden we’re talking about what our magic number is to clinch the wild card and how many days off at the end of the season we’re going to be able to get before we start playing for real.”
McCann bats sixth
One day after batting Brian McCann fifth for the first time this season, Gonzalez dropped him to sixth Tuesday against Marlins left-hander Brad Hand. McCann hadn’t batted sixth in three years, when he hit there for 24 games in 2008.
But entering Tuesday, McCann was hitting only .159 (14-for-88) in 24 games since coming off the disabled list for an oblique injury. McCann appeared to still favor that side Monday night and struck out twice with runners in scoring position late in the game. But McCann said afterward he was fine, and Gonzalez seconded that Tuesday.
“Our training people said he’s fine,” Gonzalez said. “How healthy can you be at 150 games? Everybody is beat up. I don’t think it’s anything other than some people go through some rough patches.”
Manno’s role expands
Following the departure of Kurt Kemp as director of player personnel, the Braves announced Tuesday they have increased the responsibilities of both Bruce Manno and Ronnie Richardson to fill that position.
Manno, 58, assistant general manager to Frank Wren, will have his role expanded to include overseeing player development. And Richardson, 30, who was the assistant director of player personnel for three years under Kemp, was promoted to director of minor league operations.
“[Richardson] has really grown and done a good job and we think he has a bright future,” Wren said. “So this was one way to increase his responsibilities and also to learn from someone with Bruce’s experience. Not many guys have as much experience in that job and have done it as well as he has.”
Manno has served as director of player development for the Cardinals and Brewers.
Kemp resigned Sept. 1 to pursue other opportunities.
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