Braves fall to 0-3, but here’s why you shouldn’t yet panic

“Baseball,” Austin Riley said to explain this. “You can do everything right and it won’t go your way, and you can do everything wrong and it can go your way. I mean, I think that’s just the beauty of the game. That’s where we’re at now.”

The Braves are 0-3 after Saturday’s 1-0 loss to the Padres at Petco Park. The Braves have not converted opportunities with runners in scoring position. But they have had some great at-bats. They have narrowly missed out on some home runs.

This could be a different series. The Braves haven’t looked awful.

But you will see this next to their name: 0-3.

“It just gets magnified at the beginning,” Braves manager Brian Snitker said. “If this was the middle of June, then we’d go, ‘Oh, OK.’ That’s why I hate the beginning of the seasons, for that. That’s why I love the dull routine of baseball and when we get to playing every day. It just gets magnified in the beginning.”

Should you panic?

Short answer: No.

“We’re three games into this thing,” Riley said. “You can say what you want, but we’re three games into it. Let’s just show up tomorrow. We’ve worked all offseason, all spring to be where we want to be. Let’s just trust the work. It’s there.”

The Braves are 0-3 for the first time since starting 0-4 in 2021. That’s still the longest losing streak to open a season for a Braves team that eventually made the playoffs.

This has been a mixed bag. Yes, the Braves’ at-bats have been terrific at times. But they’ve also come up short in big spots. Their starting pitchers have held up their end. Their bullpen, criticized on Opening Day, actually has kept them in games.

“I mean, I feel like we’re playing good ball,” said Spencer Schwellenbach, who tossed six scoreless innings in Saturday’s loss. “Just a couple hits that aren’t falling or vice versa for them that are falling, or hits off the pitcher’s leg that are going into our dugout or, for them, going to the first baseman. That’s just, like, a couple bounces here and there. I think we got some of the best hitters in the world on our team and we’re gonna be just fine.”

Since he first pitched for the Braves last season, left-handed reliever Aaron Bummer has earned a reputation for being unlucky. The ground balls will find holes. Or they’ll sputter in between two infielders.

In Saturday’s seventh inning, Jake Cronenworth, Friday’s hero for San Diego, hit a ball that went off the bottom of Bummer’s foot. It didn’t ricochet or spin out somewhere. No, it went right toward the Braves’ dugout and into it, and Cronenworth ended up at second.

Eventually, pinch-hitter Yuli Gurriel singled off Daysbel Hernández to score the game’s lone run. The Braves had a runner on with one out in the eighth and got the leadoff man on in the ninth, but couldn’t crack San Diego’s bullpen.

Three games, three losses. Not fun for fans.

And there have been some bad moments: In the most recent loss, the Braves drew consecutive walks to begin the game against Randy Vasquez before Matt Olson swung at the first pitch and rolled it over for a double play. At one point, the Padres turned a double play when Ozzie Albies didn’t run to second base because he believed the second baseman would catch the ball and double him off if he began running – though this was an unlucky play for Albies and a nice play by Cronenworth at second.

Then there’s the glaring number: 1-for-22 with runners in scoring position. This is concerning for any Braves fan who watched last year’s team. This time, it feels like the Braves have had some quality at-bats. But less of them came on Saturday, when Vasquez spun six scoreless frames.

“We had some funny swings at (Vasquez), I thought,” Snitker said. “You know what, I credit the guy, Vasquez. He did a good job against us.”

The Braves need to find ways to score runs. The guess here: They will. This will be a great offensive team.

But, man, did Bummer get the wrong end of one again.

“I don’t want to, you know – that’s just kind of the way it is,” Snitker said. “We hit one off the guy’s foot and it goes to the first baseman. No, I mean, that’s just baseball.”

There are some of you who won’t be happy until the Braves rattle off 10 in a row. That’s fine.

But Snitker’s point from earlier is valid: Things are magnified at the beginning of the season because these three games are all we have to evaluate. The unfortunate part for the Braves is that those three contests haven’t gone their way.

There are 159 more to go.

“It’s early. It’s early,” Riley said. “Baseball. It’s baseball. We’re a sick breed for doing what we do, but we absolutely love it. And the beauty of it (is) we get to come back out and do it all again tomorrow.”