Braves Offense Refuses to Show Up to Close Homestand Versus Reds
The Atlanta Braves offense isn't operating like an unit that wants to play baseball in October
The Atlanta Braves were shut out by the Cincinnati Reds 1-0 to close the homestand with a loss on Monday night in Truist Park.
Here’s what you need to know about from the contest.
Morton did his job tonight
Perhaps throwing Charlie Morton after Chris Sale is a motivating factor?
With Sale throwing seven scoreless last night to all but lock down his first career Cy Young win, Morton did his best to emulate the tall lefty, going 6.2 innings with only one run allowed. Giving up six hits and walking two, Morton consistently worked around traffic to keep the Braves in this one.
The most notable moment was the fifth inning, where a two-out walk of Elly De La Cruz juiced the bases for Cincinnati. After a mound visit from interim pitching coach Erick Abreu, Morton struck out Tyler Stephenson to strand all three batters and keep the deficit at one run.
As usual, Morton’s curveball carried a heavy load here, getting eight of Morton’s twelve whiffs in this one.
The loss is going to fall on Morton as he was the pitcher of record when Cincinnati took the lead, but it’s not really his fault.
No offense to speak of from Atlanta
If I told you before this game that one of these pitchers would retire sixteen consecutive hitters, even the most cynical of Braves fans would assume that it was Morton and not Nick Martinez.
About that.
Martinez issued a two-out walk to Marcell Ozuna and gave up a single to Matt Olson in the first inning, only getting out of the inning thanks to a Sean Murphy groundout.
Those were Atlanta’s last baserunners until the seventh inning, when Olson picked up his second hit of the game on a soft ground ball to third that was thrown wide of the bag of first.
That was also Atlanta’s last baserunner of the game.
Martinez, who entered this game with a 5.89 ERA in his last four starts, gave Cincinnati seven scoreless innings with only two hits and a walk allowed, striking out five.
In a winnable game, the Braves offense absolutely failed to show up, striking out seven times versus getting just three men on base in the entire contest. In a season full of rough offensive performances, this might have been one of the worst.
Bright spot: Matt Olson
First baseman Matt Olson had both of the team’s hits today, continuing his recent success. In the last fifteen days, the tall lefty is batting .302 with a .941 OPS, with nine of his 16 hits going for extra bases (three homers, six doubles) while driving in 13 and scoring 11 runs.
What’s next for the Atlanta Braves?
Atlanta’s heading to Washington for two games with the Nationals. The Braves are sending Reynaldo López (8-5, 2.04) and Max Fried (9-8, 3.35) to the mound opposite MacKenzie Gore (8-11, 4.32) and Braves killer Jake Irvin (9-12, 4.28). Both games start at 6:45 PM ET.