At this time of the year, there are no throwaway games and even travel and fatigue issues need to be overcome. But it looked like the Atlanta Braves fell flat on Monday.
The Atlanta Braves flew out to Denver to face the Rockies in a make-up game from April and lost 3-1 on a walk off home run. There is plenty to digest from this game so let’s get right to it.
3. Way too many runners left on base.
The Atlanta Braves had a ton of chances to put runs on the board and not have to play catch up in the late innings. The final number was the Braves left 9 on the bases and more importantly, 6 of those were in scoring position.
That ties into the fact that the Braves were 1 for 12 with runners in scoring position on the afternoon. Even on that lone hit, Freddie Freeman was thrown out on a reviewed bang/bang play at the plate. More on that later.
We have mentioned on many occasions in the past that the Braves are sometimes lean way too much on sitting back and hitting home runs. On a day like this, a couple of gappers would have been nice and would have probable extended the Braves winning streak.
Sadly, the biggest culprit on the afternoon was probably Freeman. He had a crucial at bat in the 5th inning with the bases loaded and seemingly was impatient – bailing out the Rockies with a weak ground ball to second base.
All in all, you wished you could blame the inefficient offense on the schedule for the day and the fact the Braves had to fly out west for a single game, but we aren’t.
After all, the Braves were in Denver on Sunday night before the Rockies were back into town. Hopefully the Braves can rebound and get the ball back rolling north of the border in Toronto.