Braves will be OK, but this is ‘pretty bad’ start

Allow newcomer Jurickson Profar to provide some calming words: “Frustration in the first four games? I don’t think so.”

Now allow manager Brian Snitker to feed your anger: “It’s bad; 0-4 is pretty bad. We didn’t get it done. We didn’t hit enough, pretty much.”

Back to the glass-half-full perspective. The Braves had plenty of bad luck throughout this series. First baseman Matt Olson should’ve had at least one homer. How many balls were rocketed towards defenders? Rookie catcher Drake Baldwin about had the worst of it, starting 0-for-7 despite smacking five balls with exit velocities exceeding 96 mph.

None of the starting pitching was bad. The bullpen was steady outside “a couple of lapses,” as Snitker put it (Hector Neris, though, isn’t providing much reason to believe he’ll still be here in the coming weeks). The starters surrendered eight runs over 20 innings, striking out 16 against seven walks. Spencer Schwellenbach produced the lone exceptional showing, but the rotation looks like it will be the team’s backbone, as expected.

And of course, let’s remember the Braves’ recent history with winless starts. The 2019 Braves were swept in Philadelphia over three games to begin the season. They followed by winning seven of their next eight. That team didn’t really hit its stride until mid-May, but it still won 97 games.

The last Braves team to start 0-4 was the 2021 version. Need you be reminded of how that ended? The eventual champs were swept in Philadelphia (again) and dropped a series opener to Washington. That team famously didn’t vault above .500 until August, but it’s immortalized in history.

One could even cite the 2012 Braves, who lost four straight to begin a 94-win campaign. The first handful of games are under a microscope; the same events unfold during a random series in June, it’s dismissed as a small sample size.

“It gets so magnified at the beginning,” Snitker said. “You go through these stretches all the time and if you only have one like this, you’re lucky. Even in the years we won over 100 games, you’d have more than one rough spot and it’s no fun going through it in June, July, whenever. It gets magnified in the beginning.”

Now that perspective is out of the way, let’s lament what was just witnessed.

The Braves were outscored 17-7. They were shut out in the last two games and didn’t score a run over their final 22 innings. This comes months after they scored five runs over two games in the Wild Card Series. We’ll give the Padres their due.

“They have a phenomenal pitching staff over there,” Braves outfielder Michael Harris II said. “Some of the same people we saw in the playoffs, some new guys, but they have a phenomenal rotation and bullpen. We still had some areas where we could’ve pulled through, but they did a good job really sticking to their plan and hitting their spots and getting us out.”

And now we’ll condemn the Braves. Once again, they were absolutely putrid with runners in scoring position. Their 1-for-22 mark across four games made for a worse success rate than the average man’s dating profile.

It was so poor they simply decided to pass on such opportunities Sunday – they never had an at-bat with a runner in scoring position in a 5-0 defeat. Designated hitter Marcell Ozuna was the only individual to officially reach second; he was simultaneously thrown out.

“We have to figure out a way to get something going offensively,” Snitker said. “With any offense at all, the worst we do is split the series.”

The Braves would be happier about leaving San Diego if they were going literally anywhere else. They’re off to Los Angeles, where the 5-0 Dodgers await. Anyone who’s followed the Braves for more than a few months knows their issues at Dodger Stadium.

In the last 11 regular-season series between the teams in Southern California, the Braves have won one (2023). They were swept there a year ago. During the team’s run of seven consecutive postseason appearances, they’re 6-18 at Dodger Stadium (including the playoffs). Half those victories came in 2023 when the team took three of four.

But history is irrelevant. The Braves can quickly transform the early worries of their season into sudden optimism with a good showing in Los Angeles.

“You have to look at it like that,” Snitker said. “We can’t look at it any way but tomorrow is going to be the start of something good for us for a while.”