MIAMI — Twelve losses in 18 games reduced the Braves’ wild-card lead to a mere 2 1/2 games over St. Louis before Tuesday, but the clubhouse atmosphere felt no different than throughout the season.
There was no quiet sulking, no whispered discussions. No finger-pointing or damning comments — on or off the record — about slumping hitters or struggling pitchers.
“I really believe when we have survived this — and we will — we’re going to be a better team for it,” said manager Fredi Gonzalez, whose bullpen blew a late lead in a loss for the second consecutive game Monday. “Not once — and this is a sign of a good club to me — not once have you heard anyone, ‘It’s your fault,’ or ‘How come you didn’t do this?’ It’s we got beat, let’s regroup and come back out there and get ’em tomorrow.”
Players have pointed to clubhouse chemistry as a big part of the team’s success the past two years, and veteran catcher David Ross said that has helped the Braves in difficult times.
“We can talk about it all we want, but you’ve got to go out there and play,” Ross said. “There’s no pep talk anybody’s going to give you. We know everybody in this room is trying, grinding it out as best they can. We’re just going through a stretch we haven’t been through all year.
“It is nice to know that you have a good group of guys in here that you don’t ever doubt what anybody’s motives are.”
As Ross spoke, some Braves directed their attention to TVs hung above lockers in the visiting clubhouse at Sun Life Stadium. The TVs were tuned to MLB Network, with a couple of analysts talking about the Braves and how the team could be teetering on collapse.
Third baseman Chipper Jones, dressing a few lockers over from Ross, suddenly said aloud, to a group of players within earshot: “We’re going to win tonight.”
Catcher Brian McCann, seated a few feet away, seconded the statement: “That’s right.”
Mohawk slumpbuster
Eric Hinske pulled out the stops by getting a Mohawk haircut Tuesday. The Braves’ veteran got a close-cropped stripe of hair down the middle, about two inches wide, with the rest of his head shaved clean.
Anything to help the Braves break their slump.
Hinske said he last had a Mohawk in 2008 as a member of the Tampa Bay Rays — the American League champion Rays.
“I love it,” second baseman Dan Uggla said, admiring Hinske’s new ’do in the clubhouse Tuesday afternoon. “Best haircut on the team.”
Uggla has worn a “fauxhawk” haircut all season, with a wide, thick strip down the middle and close-cropped on the sides. He’s not ready to try a real Mohawk.
Chipper’s chopper
It’s not often that you hear of an infielder losing a ground ball — chopped or otherwise — in the lights. It happened with two out the ninth inning Monday, when Florida’s Emilio Bonifacio hit what the late broadcaster Skip Caray would call a “chopper to Chipper.”
Jones didn’t see the ball until it bounced next to him — and past him. Bonifacio was credited with a single off closer Craig Kimbrel, and the next batter, Omar Infante, hit a two-run walk-off homer for a 6-5 Marlins win.
It was the second ninth-inning homer off Kimbrel in as many days, after he had allowed only one homer previously during the entire season.
Gonzalez who managed the Marlins for 3 1/2 seasons, said he has seen fielders lose fly balls and some grounders in the lights at Sun Life Stadium, also home to the Miami Dolphins and University of Miami football teams. Gonzalez said the lights were “recalibrated” for football.
“If you play baseball in a football stadium, I guess that happens from time to time,” Jones said. “But it’s just extremely bad timing. Pretty helpless feeling when the game should be over.”
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