Atlanta continues to remain in a state of frustration after ending their road trip across the AL East on a downer.
I honestly wanted to just post a link to Matt Olson’s quotes following Wednesday’s loss and leave it at that but hey, this was at least a somewhat productive series since the Braves did win their second road game of the year while they were up in Canada. Now granted, they are now a still-abysmal 2-11 on the road to start this season but hey, baby steps, right?
Anyways, the Braves are now returning home following an underwhelming road trip through parts of the AL East that didn’t exactly get the season on track once again. Before we take a look at the upcoming series later on, we’ve got to take a look back at this one. Once again, I commend those of y’all who are here for this because I know it hasn’t exactly been sunshine and lollipops around here when it comes to the Braves here in April. With that being said, let’s get into it.
Monday, April 14
Braves 8, Blue Jays 4
If I had told you on Monday morning that Grant Holmes would pitch into the eighth inning and the Braves themselves raced out to an 8-0 lead, you would’ve taken that eight days of the week and 25 hours a day, right? That’s indeed wha happened to kick off this series, as the Braves blitzed the Blue Jays while Grant Holmes absolutely clamped down on them for nearly the entire game. Austin Riley was responsible for five of those eight runs that the Braves put on the board, as he continued his return to form with two big flies. Sean Murphy continued to hit well at the plate as well, as he added a home run alongside Riley’s pair of homers.
While the Blue Jays did come alive late in this one as they scored the final four runs of the game, that was the extent of their comeback attempt as an eight-run deficit proved to be too much for Toronto to overturn. This was a rare experience this season: A game that the Braves controlled from start to finish without there being too much danger as far as the outcome was concerned. It was impressive that this took place on the road as well and with the two Spencers going for the next two games, thee was a real feeling of optimism that this team might actually come back from Canada with a road series win under their belts.
Tuesday, April 15
Blue Jays 6, Braves 3
Welp! It was all good for the Braves and Spencer Schwellenbach in this one until suddenly it wasn’t. For the second game in a row in this series, the Braves got out ahead early. Once again, it was Austin Riley delivering the “boom” as he hit yet another home run and he looked absolutely locked in at this point. With the way Schwellenbach had started this season as well, you would’ve been forgiven for believing that there was a shot that that one run could end up holding up for the Braves in this one.
However, Schwellenbach spent most of this game flirting with disaster until he and disaster eventually got together and had themselves a “good” time in the fifth inning. We really should’ve known something was off with Schwellenbach on the day when the first baserunner he surrendered was a walk. If he’s walking someone early on, that may as well be the dark omen of death. Sure enough, the fifth inning rolled around and the Blue Jays figured him out and lit him up for five runs — Alan Roden hit a go-ahead two-run shot to make it 3-1 and then Anthony Santander broke the game open with a no-doubter to make it 6-1. This is a Blue Jays team that had been desperate for any type of power and then it happens against a pitcher who’s been dominant so far this season. Baseball!!!
After the five-run fifth inning blitz, the Braves were unable to recover as Kevin Gausman did a good job of mitigating any damage that he sustained in this one. He only ended up with two runs given up over six innings and the Braves were only able to muster up a ninth inning solo homer from Ozzie Albies in order to bring us to the final score of 6-3.
Wednesday, April 16
Blue Jays 3, Braves 1
19 strikeouts. The Atlanta Braves struck out 19 times in one game. Nine. Teen. Strike. Outs. The Blue Jays broke a franchise record for striking out batters in a single game. The Braves tied a franchise record for striking out in a single game. While the home plate umpiring certainly played a role into adding to Atlanta’s frustration and altering their approach in some key situations, that’s still not an excuse that passes the smell test. Austin Riley and Michael Harris II both struck out four times, which you just can’t have from the two hitters at the top of your order. Matt Olson and Drake Baldwin struck out three times each as well. Having four hitters of that caliber strike out 14 times in the same game is wild.
Naturally, while the Braves were busy whiffing up a storm, the Blue Jays scratched two runs past Spencer Strider in his return. Had the lineup not fallen into a maelstrom of despair due to all of the swings-and-misses, the story of this game would’ve been Strider’s relatively successful return to the mound after just over a year of being away due to injury. Strider went five innings, struck out five batters and while he wasn’t at his sharpest, he still showed plenty of signs that he’s likely going to be just fine now that he’s back.
Anyways, the only positive for the Braves in this one is that despite his robust participation in the strikeout-a-thon, Drake Baldwin was finally rewarded for his weeks of horrid batted ball luck by hitting his first career home run. Naturally, this one was one where he clearly got lucky as it had an xBA of .150 and only would’ve been a homer in four out of the 30 big league ballparks but if anybody deserved something like that going his way, it was Drake Baldwin. That’s where the positives end for this lineup, as the Braves limped back home with another series loss under their belts.
Again, if I had told you on Monday morning that Grant Holmes would pitch into the eighth inning in a game where the Braves raced out to an 8-0 lead with the two Spencers pitching for the next two days, you would’ve figured that this would’ve been a very good series for the Braves, right? Instead, this turned into a series that ended in the same spot that the Braves have been in for nearly this entire month of April: A state of frustration. While Toronto’s pitching staff eventually got itself right after a blip on Monday and have been largely great on the mound to start this season, this really does feel like a missed opportunity for the Braves to end their road trip on a high note.
Instead, Atlanta will be coming back home to Cobb County with a 2-4 road trip — usually you’d take that but the Braves are in a position where they’ve got to get their season out of being stuck in neutral. If we’re using the 0-7 start as a checkpoint of sorts, then it’s pretty easy to see that the Braves have simply been spinning their wheels in the mud since then with a 5-6 run. Sure, they’re digging their way out of their hole but they’re going sideways instead of going up.
With that being said, as Ivan mentioned in his daily question, the Braves have a real chance to get right with this upcoming homestand with the Twins and then the Cardinals coming to town after that. While Atlanta’s still not in any position to take any opposition lightly, it’ll likely be a five-alarm fire around here if they continue to struggle against these teams. With that being said, the offense did show some real signs of life on this road trip and Strider is officially back in the rotation. The struggle is real but there’s still enough hope that this team is going to have things start to go their way at some point in the near future.