SEATTLE – The Braves did not go down without a fight. They never do. Their resilience defines them.
On Tuesday, despite getting a late start offensively, they pushed the Mariners. They nearly swung the game for good.
This was not another classic comeback victory. This time, the Braves did not leave their opponent stunned.
Atlanta lost to Seattle, 3-2, in another hard-fought game with the Mariners – don’t they all seem to be like this? And for the first time in weeks, the Braves lost a series.
Five observations:
1. On Monday, the Braves faced one stud starter in Bryce Miller. On Tuesday, they faced another in Luis Castillo.
Thus far, the Braves have scored one run in 14 innings against Seattle’s starting pitching.
They have struck out 17 times. They have collected only five hits.
And they are facing these hurlers after going up against Cleveland’s talented pitching staff.
“Yeah, I feel like we’ve seen some good arms,” Matt Olson said. “But obviously not just fully clicking (with) everybody. Losses the last couple (games). But overall been playing good baseball. Finding a way to stick in games. Pitchers are throwing well for us. It’s not gonna last forever.”
Yes, Seattle’s starting pitching is elite. But the Braves are perhaps baseball’s best offense when they are clicking.
Right now, the Braves aren’t themselves. They’re having a tougher time scoring.
Their best chance against Castillo came in the fourth inning, when Olson walked and Marcell Ozuna singled. With Atlanta down two runs, Orlando Arcia struck out and Michael Harris II grounded out to end the inning.
The Braves scored two in the eighth, but went down in order in the ninth. Jarred Kelenic, the former Mariner, made the final out.
The Mariners rank second in MLB in team ERA. Cleveland is sixth. It’s possible that has something to do with this.
Is it just a matter of time until the Braves get going?
“I hope. Yeah,” Braves manager Brian Snitker said. “I look around and I watch games all day, and there’s a lot of guys that are in the same boat. Like I keep saying, they’ve been there before and have come out of it, and they’ll do it again. There’s been some really good pitching here this last week, so that’s got a lot to do with it, too.”
The Braves have scored nine runs over the last four games, which is an anomaly for their dangerous offense. And their best hitters are struggling.
Ronald Acuña Jr. is batting .245 with a .684 OPS. Austin Riley is hitting .226 with a .664 OPS. Olson is batting .202 with a .702 OPS.
After seven innings, the Braves faced a difficult task: Down three runs, they had six outs with which to play against the Mariners’ bullpen, which entered with the best bullpen ERA in baseball at 2.42.
And the Braves nearly pulled it off.
2. How big of a spot did these two teams encounter in the eighth inning?
Important enough that Mariners manager Scott Servais brought in closer Andres Muñoz with one out. Due up: Riley and Olson.
With two men on, Riley hit a dribbler that Muñoz fielded before an errant throw to first allowed a run to score. After that, the Mariners intentionally walked Olson to get to Ozuna, who has been among baseball’s best hitters to this point.
Ozuna struck out. Arcia grounded out – though he almost beat the throw to first base.
Inning over.
The Braves still trailed by a run.
“It’s rough,” Snitker said of Muñoz’s stuff. “Yeah, no, it’s really good. We’re facing a lot of really tough slider guys here all of the sudden.”
Ozzie Albies might’ve been able to score on Riley’s soft roller because the right fielder had a brief moment of trouble getting the ball out from under the padding in foul territory after Muñoz sailed the throw. But Albies stayed at third base.
3. Prior to Tuesday, Braves starter Reynaldo López went at least six innings in all four of his starts, and allowed one or no runs in those.
This was unsustainable.
While López didn’t match his previous outings, he kept his team in the game versus the Mariners. He held Seattle to three runs over five innings. The problem: His offense didn’t back him, which made his mistakes extra costly.
In the third inning, Jorge Polanco launched a two-run shot to right field off López. In the fourth, the Mariners added another run on Dylan Moore’s double to left field.
Sometimes, a pitcher executes his pitch and must tip his cap. This didn’t appear to be the case on this night.
López threw a changeup down the middle to Polanco. He left a fastball over the middle against Luke Raley, who singled to set up Moore. López hung a slider to Moore, and it stayed toward the middle of the plate.
The damage could’ve been worse: In that fourth inning, Julio Rodriguez also saw a middle-middle fastball, but grounded out with the bases loaded to end the inning.
Still, López deserves credit. He battled. He limited the damage. He gave Atlanta a chance to win.
4. On April 11, the Braves lost an ugly game to the Mets at Truist Park. With it, they dropped the series against New York.
This began quite the roll.
Starting on April 12 in Miami, the Braves won five straight series. They went 12-3 over that span – one loss to the Marlins, one to the Rangers, one to Cleveland.
Despite the offensive funk, they were winning prior to these two losses.
“I mean, throughout the course of the year, you’ve got to find those different ways,” Olson said. “We’ve been in some tight games. It feels like we haven’t had a ton of, just, get out to a big lead and coast into a win. We’ve had to battle for some wins, and that’s not necessarily a bad thing to be put in those situations kind of early on and try to come away with a win.”
5. Tuesday’s loss also means the Braves missed out on a franchise record: With a win, the Braves would’ve had 20 victories before May for the first time in their history.
But 19-9 is still really good. How good?
The team has won 19 games prior to May just one other time: In April 1997, the Braves went 19-6.
A year ago, the Braves were 18-9 by May and eventually won a MLB-best 104 games.
They’ve faced some tough pitching the last few days, though.
“Like I say, we went from the frying pan into the fire coming in here after what we went through with (Cleveland),” Snitker said.
Stat to know
1 - The Braves on Monday and Tuesday suffered back-to-back losses for the first time this season. They were the last team in baseball without consecutive losses.
Quotable
“Everybody wants to come out and hit .400 and kill it the first month. But the reality of it is we got a lot of season left and it’s always just a couple swings away before we’re all getting hot.” - Olson on keeping perspective early in the season
Up next
Chris Sale will lead the Braves into Wednesday’s series finale, which begins at 3:40 p.m. Seattle will start right-hander Emerson Hancock.
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