ATLANTA — The Atlanta Braves are still the best team in baseball, and they are still in complete control of the NL East with a 10-game lead over second place Philadelphia. Still, they’ve been sputtering a bit lately, and many of their problems have stemmed from their starting rotation struggling over the past six games resulting in a 2-4 record.
This week, they played the Pittsburgh Pirates in a four-game set they split, winning the middle two contests, but their starters made the offense have to fight back and win those two games.
The Braves have the offense to overcome a bad performance by a starter, but for every starter to struggle six games in a row? That’s a bit of a problem.
Are they cursed? Jake Mastroianni, host of the Locked On Braves podcast, thinks so.
"The Braves aren’t exactly helping themselves," Mastroianni said. "But it seems like all these little things that are going against them, and they’re not able to just get past that.”
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In the past six games, against the Chicago Cubs and Pittsburgh Pirates, only two Braves starters have lasted five innings; Elder on Thursday afternoon and Yonny Chirinos, who went five on Tuesday.
In the two games against the Cubs, Elder lasted four and a third innings on Saturday, and Charlie Morton followed up on Sunday with a four-and-one-third outing himself. Elder gave up seven runs (five earned), and Morton gave up five. Spencer Strider had the worst start during this six-game stretch, only lasting two and two-thirds against the Pirates on Monday night and surrendering six runs. Max Fried pitched on Wednesday, only lasted four innings and gave up four runs.
Mastroianni explained that the most frustrating thing about watching the rotation right now is that in baseball, calls aren’t always going to go your way, and you have to adjust. During this stretch, the starters aren’t adjusting. Instead of following a hit with a strikeout, they’re following them with walks, hit batters, or getting rattled by the fielders' miscues. And it’s not just one starter; they’ve all had these same issues during this rough stretch of baseball.
And coming up next for the Braves, a trip to New York to face the Mets.
The Major League Baseball season is long, and August is called the dog days for a reason. Some teams hit a lull during this time because a 162-game is grueling. The Braves are a great team, and they’re still one of the favorites to represent the National League in the World Series.
So don’t panic, Braves fans. The rotation isn’t cursed. They’re just going through a bit of a rough patch right now.
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