BS Report: From Bad to Worse

Thankfully, the Braves are off today after losing two of three from San Francisco, including A32 loss on Sunday to the Giants. The Braves, in their three game series in San Francisco, did not hit a home run, had only five runs scored and 15 hits in the three game series, which obviously contributed to losing two of three games. The drop off from what has happened here this month has been unbelievable, really.

The Braves have now lost six games in the standings and Philadelphia, who was nine games back when the month of June began. Now only three games back while the Marlins are only six games back, the nationals are seven and a half games back, so this nine and 13 month of June for Atlanta has allowed all three of those teams to get squarely back in the race in the National League Eastern Division.

The numbers for the month of June are truly unbelievable. The hitting has been atrocious. The Braves are last in the sport in runs scored, batting average, Ops, OBP and also they are tied with Cleveland for last and home runs with 19. And then there’s the starting pitching. How about a 5.62 earned run average for the starters. That’s the six worst in baseball.

And if not for the bullpen, this praise team may already be in second place. The bullpen ERA in the month of June 2nd .13, which is the best in baseball and that goes along with what’s happening all year long, is the Braves have the best bullpen ERA for the entire season at 2.77. So how is this going to end?

Well, we’ve still got, you know, 80 games left, so there’s still a long way to October as we like to say around these parts. But there is no question the Braves have got to be in shock a little bit about what’s happened this month. They could not have really played better baseball than what happened in the months of April and May.

And now all of a sudden, they can’t win a game. It’s been brutal for this month of June, where the offense and the starting pitching really failing them, which was the two things that really helped them in the months of April and May, get off to that big lead of ten and a half games. So what has to happen?

Well, I wish I had an answer about the starting pitching. I think it’s kind of a mess right now. You’ve got Grant Holmes, who was in relief over the weekend. Is he going to start this week or not? You’ve got Martin Perez, almost the second most dependable starting pitcher for Atlanta right now. That’s something we didn’t really expect to begin the season.

You have Reynaldo Lopez back in the rotation. But how deep can he go in the games. You only went three innings on Friday night. So they have a piggyback situation with him. And Hurst and Waldrop. You got a mess is what you have in that starting pitching. And now you go from thinking the Braves may need one starting pitcher before the trade deadline to maybe two.

Now, A.J. Smith is going to pitch on Tuesday in his first rehab start for a full season minor league team with Agusta. That’s good, but he’s still six weeks away, and that’s mid-August after the trade deadline. So some of these pitchers just have to pitch better. There’s no question about it. And you don’t want the bullpen to get burned out because they’re having to fill more innings because the starting pitchers aren’t going deeper in the games.

And as for the offense, it’s just been a mess. There’s no question about it. Since Ronald Acuna got hurt and laughed. It’s been a mess. Eli White’s in the outfield. He’s not a good player to play every day. You’ve got players who’s struggling and of course Austin Riley at the top of that list. So we’re one game past the halfway point for the Braves this season.

They were after 81 games on pace for 98 wins, which is still a great season. But there is no question they’ve got to stop this skid soon or they’re going to be in trouble. And in second place.