Mistakes are killing the Atlanta Braves
This Atlanta Braves team is plagued by mistakes but more importantly, letting them rattle the team or player until an avalanche of problems exists.
That was still evident Wednesday despite the fact that the Braves come back and won the game.
The first mistake was made by manager Brian Snitker who decided to pinch hit for Charlie Morton in the bottom of the sixth inning. Yes, the bases were loaded, but I still felt at the time that Charlie was the better option to go out on the mound and shut down the Mets lineup once again.
It is absolutely no secret to anyone who has watched any inning this year, that the Atlanta Braves bullpen is the weakness of this team. Your job as a manager is to know this and play to your strengths and weaknesses. Charlie Morton had a low pitch count and was seemingly rolling at that point. Leave him in the game.
The next example was AJ Minter. Minter came in and was throwing really well but an errant thrown that was nowhere close took him off his game and let the whole inning unravel.
After the error, Minter could not find the strike zone and when he did, he allowed some hard hit balls. Luke Jackson allowed the go ahead hit, but it was all earned runs to Minter that allowed the Mets to storm back and take the lead.
The last was Dansby Swanson. And truthfully, it might not all have been on Dansby Swanson but it sure looked like it was a straight steal that he called on the bases.
I have to believe that if it was called steal, Contreras would have been on second base after they threw Swanson out. The caught stealing essentially ended the rally the Atlanta Braves put together in the 8th. There was no point in trying to steal third in that situation, especially with Acuna potentially coming up.