The Atlanta Braves fell to the Miami Marlins 6-2 on Wednesday afternoon as they enter their first losing streak of the 2015 season. The Braves are now 6-3 as the Marlins improve to 3-6.
On a day where everyone in the league celebrates Jackie Robinson Day and wears the #42 on their backs, Atlanta’s offense was shut down. Marlins starting pitcher, Dan Haren, went seven innings while only allowing three hits – two homers and a single to Andrelton Simmons.
Cameron Maybin hit his second home run on a 3-2 pitch in the bottom of the 6th inning. Then, leading off the bottom of the 7th inning, Kelly Johnson hit a solo homer to right field.
Freddie Freeman continues to hit the ball hard but went 0-3 with a walk. This lowered his batting average to .229 for the 2015 season.
“Nothing is falling right now but it’s still early,” Freeman said after the game. “I’m just going to keep grinding and putting good swings on the ball and hopefully they will fall in Toronto.”
Braves manager Fredi Gonzalez may be having fun moving these guys around in the lineup but it’s not showing on at the plate. As we sit leaving this game, the highest batting average for the starting lineup on Wednesday is .267 from Jonny Gomes.
“It’s hard to score any runs when you get three hits,” Gonzalez said after the game. “We didn’t get many guys on base and we just didn’t swing the bat when we got guys on base.”
If you’re not aware how bad these averages are that I’m mentioning, lets take a look.
Maybin – .167
Gosselin – .100
Freeman – .229
Bethancourt – .182
Johnson – .176
Gomes – .267
Jace Peterson – .208
Simmons – .242
Hitters who weren’t in the lineup on Wednesday…Yes, a little better averages but the lineup needs to stay consistent to get these guys in a groove. I think Fredi still can’t decide who he wants in the lineup.
Chris Johnson – .400
A.J. Pierzynski – .400
Alberto Callaspo – .364
Nick Markakis – .267
Eric Young Jr. – .179
The Braves lose two games in a row, have their first losing streak and lost their first series of the season.
“You always want to win the series, but we didn’t win this one,” Fredi told the media. “We won the first couple of series but now we have an off day tomorrow to regroup a little bit and head out for a long road trip. So, we’ll see if we can get back to the winning series thing.”
Should everyone start jumping? No, the early wins this year were great and actually got folks watching the Braves after all the offseason turmoil. But, we should accept these loses and move on. Braves have a big series with the Toronto Blue Jays starting on Friday.
Julio Teheran will be given the ball on Friday. The Braves were 7-13 in Interleague games in 2014.