Braves' offense building momentum, even if big swings few and far between
June 2nd, 2024
Joe Trezza
@JoeTrezzATLANTA – Nothing about the ball Sean Murphy hit in Sunday’s seventh inning should’ve been much to celebrate. With runners on second and third and one out in a tie game, Murphy skied Austin Adams’ 1-0 slider more or less straight up: 85.6 mph with a 59 degree launch angle … and a little drift. Regardless, similarly batted balls turn into hits only 1 percent of the time, per Statcast.
The Braves really needed a big hit. Sometimes, it just has to land in the right spot.
There was maybe no other place on the Truist Park field Murphy could’ve hit his ball that wouldn’t have resulted in an out, except exactly where it did. As it was, Murphy’s pop fly dropped in a Bermuda Triangle of A’s fielders just inside the right-field line for a go-ahead double, spurring Atlanta to salvage a 3-1 win in its series finale over Oakland.
A Braves offense needing a blast got a bloop. Maybe it was just the kind of break they’ve been waiting for.
“That’s just the kind of thing that can get somebody going,” manager Brian Snitker said. “A guy is struggling, gets fisted and one falls in, and next thing you know, they breathe a sigh of relief and go on a run.”
Murphy had been struggling since returning this week from an oblique injury sustained on Opening Day, going 2-for-16 without an extra-base hit out of the gate. His first came against his former team and helped ensure the Braves didn’t waste a strong start from Charlie Morton, who struck out six and held Oakland to one hit across six scoreless innings.
“From my seat, the hitting thing is going to come,” Snitker said. “I can’t go in there and blow anything up, because we’re not playing bad baseball. We’re playing good baseball. We’re just not hitting.”
To Snitker’s point: Even with the win, Sunday marked the 14th time in the past 21 games the Braves have scored three runs or fewer. They hit only four homers in seven games during this homestand, including two in Saturday’s nine-run eruption -- which means in four of seven games on this homestand, Atlanta went homerless.
It’s a concerning trend for a Braves team that is built to slug. After tying a Major League record with 307 homers in 2023, they’re on pace to hit only 168 this season. The only team in MLB history to experience a drop in homers of 100 or more year-over-year was the 2012-13 Yankees, who went from 245 to 144.
“We’re not rolling, and the majority of the guys in there have been here for the past few years, and we know what that feels like,” Morton said. “That’s the problem. You look at our record and look at us on paper, and we’re playing OK. But because we know what it feels like to be ourselves and what we’re capable of, that’s why it’s tough -- because we don’t feel that way. We don’t feel like everything is clicking, like we’re rolling on all cylinders.”
Yes, this Braves team is now without Ronald Acuña Jr., who hit 41 homers last year and only four this season before his season-ending injury on May 26. But they also haven’t gotten a homer yet from Murphy (21 in ‘23), and only six from Austin Riley and Ozzie Albies combined. Last season, Murphy, Riley and Albies combined to hit 91.
“I feel like the at-bats are starting to string together,” Riley said. “I really do.”
For all the speculation about whom Braves GM Alex Anthopolus might acquire to fill Atlanta’s Acuña-sized hole, the Braves are, more than most teams, reliant on the players in their clubhouse right now. Snitker believes a team’s starting nine should play every day and trusts his veterans more than maybe any manager in baseball. Only 10 position players got at-bats in the seven games this week: Sunday’s starting nine and backup catcher Travis d’Arnaud, who started twice in Murphy’s stead. Otherwise, Snitker keeps running his guys out there. He prefers patience over panic.
“I’ve been on teams where I can sense we were in trouble, and I don’t feel like that in here,” Morton said. “I don’t feel like [our clubhouse] will allow that to happen.
“It’s what? June 2? There is a lot of baseball, four months to go. And we basically have the same team that we had. I think we have a great team. I don’t know why two months of baseball would make us change our opinion of ourselves, especially when we’re not playing that bad.”
