SAN DIEGO – If there were any remaining questions as to whether Mike Minor's season had reached a crisis point, they were answered Friday. Sound the alarms.
The Braves left-hander gave up five runs and two more homers in the first three innings of a 10-1 loss to the Padres in a series opener at Petco Park, in which the Braves were out-hit 20-4 by the lowest-scoring, worst-hitting team in baseball.
It was the fourth loss in as many games for the Braves at the halfway point of an eight-game trip that began with them getting swept at Dodger Stadium.
Braves hitters actually fared even worse against 13-game loser Eric Stults than against Dodgers aces Clayton Kershaw and Zack Greinke the previous two nights. They managed two hits, one (unearned) run and four walks in 6 1/3 innings against Stults (4-13), a left-hander who had been 1-10 with a 5.32 ERA in his previous 13 starts.
The Braves are 9-14 in their past 23 games and have scored three runs or fewer in 13 of them, including two or fewer runs in eight of the past 12.
If the night hadn’t been enough of unmitigated debacle, there was an ugly scene in the three-run Padres seventh inning, when reliever David Hale gestured twice in a disrespectful manner toward head trainer Jeff Porter, telling him to stay in the dugout when Porter was on the way out to check on Hale after a line drive hit the back of his foot.
Still, nothing could overshadow the poor performance of Minor (4-7), who stuck around for five innings and was charged with nine hits, five runs and two walks with one strikeout. His ERA climbed to 5.42 in 17 starts, with 127 hits and 18 home runs allowed in 98 innings. The left-hander’s troubling season is becoming more so with almost every start.
When Tommy Medica, who had four homers before Friday, hit a pair of long two-run homers off Minor in the first and third innings, it made it 12 homers he’d allowed in a span of 49 innings over 10 starts. Medica went 3-for-3 against Minor and 5-for-5 in the game.
After his leadoff single in the fifth inning, he sprinted to third base with one out while Minor stood on the mound paying no attention. Neither did Braves infielders. Catcher Gerald Laird pointed toward third base when Medica took off, but Minor didn’t notice or respond to Laird’s gesture until it was too late to even make a throw.
Medica was credited with just his second stolen base of the season.
Minor has gone 2-3 with a 7.33 ERA in his past 10 starts while allowing 85 hits, 17 walks and 12 homers in 54 innings.
And while it’s easy to speculate that Minor’s poor season stems from his missing most of spring training with shoulder tendinitis that landed him on the disabled list in April, his struggles actually began late last season.
After going 21-9 with a 2.79 ERA and 23 home runs allowed 42 starts from June 30, 2012, through Aug. 25, 2013, Minor is 4-11 with a 5.06 ERA and 25 homers allowed in 23 starts since then.
Before Friday, Medica had four homers all season in 145 at-bats. He had a .219 average with one homer in 64 at-bats at Petco Park. He had a .225 average with one homer and 27 strikeouts in 102 at-bats since May 30.
But against Minor, he looked like an All-Star. He gave the Padres a 2-0 lead with his two-out homer in the first inning, and in the third inning they pushed the margin to 5-0 when Jedd Gyorko doubled home a run with one out and Medica followed two pitches later with his second souvenir for the folks in the left-field bleachers.
While Minor was getting knocked around, Braves hitters were making Stults look like a 13-game winner rather than a 13-game loser.
The Braves could be excused for mustering totals of five runs and three extra-base hits over two games Wednesday and Thursday in Los Angeles, when they were dominated by Kershaw and Greinke. But on Friday they couldn’t put together anything against Stults, who gave up six runs and six hits in six innings of a loss to the Braves five days before in Atlanta.
For a complete postgame write-thru version of this story with quotes, go to MyAJC.com or use this link.
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