Takeaways from yet another Braves’ series loss to the Nationals as the Head Coach faces Sack Controversial Issues
A disappointing and frustrating stretch for the Atlanta Braves continued Sunday with an 8-5 loss to the Washington Nationals. Atlanta is now 35-28 for the season and are now 9.0 games back in the NL East standings.
The Braves still hold a healthy 4.5 game lead in the Wild Card race, but at this point, that’s not much comfort, mostly because “haha everyone else sucks too” isn’t exactly a feel-good sentiment to hang one’s hat on. While all of the metrics point to a lot of noise and underperformance, this simply isn’t a good baseball team at the moment. There’s a lot of stuff that the Braves are doing right, but they can’t seem to actually translate that to a win, because they seem to do a lot more stuff wrong that actually tanks their chances of winning. Honestly, it’s pretty much the same story for any team that goes on a bad run: you find ways to lose, no matter what the underlying peripherals are. That is where this club is right now. It’s a far cry from successful runs this team has had over the past half-decade, where some aspect of the team (usually offense, usually via homer) picked up whatever else (rotation, bullpen, in-game tactics, defense, luck, etc.) happened to struggle at that particular moment.
Sunday’s loss dropped them to 2-4 on their current road trip. They have an off day Monday before facing a tough opponent in the Baltimore Orioles, one of the few teams in MLB that’s not stuck in neutral at the moment.
During the Braves run of six straight Division titles, they have dominated the NL East. After Sunday’s loss, Atlanta is 12-11 against the rest of the division. That includes a 5-1 mark against the Marlins. They are 3-3 against the Mets. Atlanta took two of three from the Phillies during the opening weekend and won’t play them again until July.
The Braves are 38-21 against the Nationals since the start of the 2021 season. They are 2-6 this season with Washington winning a pair of four-game series in the last two weeks.
Atlanta is just 9-15 over its last 24 games and are 16-16 away from Truist Park.
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Hurston Waldrep was the latest Braves pitching prospect to make his debut this season. Waldrep cruised through the first three innings Sunday before falling apart in the fourth inning. He allowed four hits, four walks and ended up being charged with seven runs in just 3 2/3 innings. His 1/4 K/BB ratio left a lot to be desired, even aside from the three-run homer he allowed. Waldrep may very well figure into the picture down the road, but Sunday he looked like a pitcher that needs more time.
Spencer Schwellenbach is penciled in to start Wednesday’s game in Baltimore. He looked okay in his debut, allowing three runs over five innings to the Nationals on May 29, but then was knocked around in his next start, charged with six runs over 4 2/3 innings against the Red Sox. The Orioles will present his biggest challenge to date from an opponent standpoint.
