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Atlanta Braves: Takeaways from Tuesday’s Tough Loss to the Royals

By Steven Teal

ATLANTA, GEORGIA - JULY 23: Pitcher Dallas Keuchel #60 of the Atlanta Braves throws a pitch in the first inning during the game against the Kansas City Royals at SunTrust Park on July 23, 2019 in Atlanta, Georgia. (Photo by Mike Zarrilli/Getty Images)
ATLANTA, GEORGIA - JULY 23: Pitcher Dallas Keuchel #60 of the Atlanta Braves throws a pitch in the first inning during the game against the Kansas City Royals at SunTrust Park on July 23, 2019 in Atlanta, Georgia. (Photo by Mike Zarrilli/Getty Images) /
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ATLANTA, GEORGIA – JULY 23: Manager Brian Snitker #43 of the Atlanta Braves takes the ball from relief pitcher Wes Parsons #52 in the eighth inning during the game against the Kansas City Royals at SunTrust Park on July 23, 2019 in Atlanta, Georgia. (Photo by Mike Zarrilli/Getty Images)
ATLANTA, GEORGIA – JULY 23: Manager Brian Snitker #43 of the Atlanta Braves takes the ball from relief pitcher Wes Parsons #52 in the eighth inning during the game against the Kansas City Royals at SunTrust Park on July 23, 2019 in Atlanta, Georgia. (Photo by Mike Zarrilli/Getty Images) /

2. Bullpen Struggles To Keep Game Close

The Braves bullpen has been awesome for a couple of months but they’ve started to struggle a bit more. Anthony Swarzak, in particular, has been really good since coming over from Seattle.

However, he was bound to have a rough outing eventually. Swarzak had recorded 17 innings of scoreless baseball before Tuesday’s game and had a 0.42 ERA in appearances for Atlanta.

After the Atlanta Braves offense had just tied the game back at 2-all, Swarzak came in to keep the game right where it was and allow the offense to put the Braves back ahead.

The Royals offense had other plans for Swarzak as Lucas Duda hit a leadoff home run to put the Royals back ahead. Whit Merrifield would then draw a walk and Alex Gordon would single to put runners on first and second with no outs.

That ended Swarzak’s night and after Wes Parson’s poor performance on the mound, hooked him for the loss.

The inning couldn’t have been much worse as the Royals would push 3 runs across to pull away from Atlanta.

Parsons came into the game and immediately walked the first batter he faced to load the bases for Kansas City. Jorge Soler came to the plate looking to put the royals up big but would instead be gifted a base on balls to extend the Royals lead to 4-2.

Parsons allowed 1 more run to score after he hit Royal’s third baseman Humberto Arteaga in the ribs with a pitch. Luckily for Atlanta, Josh Tomlin came into the game and put out the fire like he has most of the season.

It was an ugly inning for Parsons and it earned himself a demotion after the game. The Braves called up their 5th round draft pick from 2016, Jeremy Walker, to take Parsons spot on the roster.

Quick side note about Walker:  he has posted a 2.84 ERA through 26 appearances between Double-A Mississippi and Triple-A Gwinnett.  He has 71 strikeouts compared to his 8 walks allowed. He’s also allowed just 2 home runs in 69.2 innings pitched.

Hopefully, Walker has much more success than Parsons did Tuesday night. We need to win these games as much as possible. Every win is valuable when you have two teams breathing down your neck waiting to take advantage of any mistakes that you make.

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