The Atlanta Braves are seemingly inventing new ways to lose a baseball game on a nightly basis. During their losing streak most of the frustration has rightfully been with the ineptitude of the offense. However, even when they broke out for 10 runs on Thursday afternoon, Atlanta still managed to lose.
The latest heartbreaking loss came via wild pitch from Pierce Johnson which gifted the San Francisco Giants an extra innings walk-off victory. It's true that wasn't a great pitch from Johnson, but that play also offers evidence another that another key part of the Braves is costing this team wins.
WALK-OFF WILD PITCH 🚨 pic.twitter.com/GpFEOElsfE
— SF Giants on NBCS (@NBCSGiants) June 7, 2025
Braves drop off in defense is making their losses sting that much more
Atlanta has somehow lost eight consecutive one-run games, and the series opening loss to San Francisco highlighted some major concerns with their defense. In the first inning, the Braves were immediately trailing thanks to two errors during the Giants three-run frame.
One of the errors came from struggling third baseman Austin Riley. Earlier this season it seemed Riley had turned a corner defensively, and graded out as one of the best third baseman in baseball. As of May 5, Riley had made just two errors, had +3 outs above average (OAA), and ranked in the 92nd percentile in OAA.
Sadly, Riley has taken a huge step back towards his old frustrating defensive habits over the month's worth of games that have followed. Since May 5, Riley has made 6 errors in 27 games and seen his OAA drop to -2 and ranking drop to the 22nd percentile. Brian Snitker said a couple weeks ago that he felt the errors weren't all on Riley, but it's clear the Braves third baseman is in a major defensive funk.
It was also an uncharacteristically bad finish for Sean Murphy. Normally, Murph is producing a strong defensive performance behind the plate, but many fans are upset with his lack of an attempt to block Johnson's wild pitch to end the game last night. Murphy ranks in the 73rd percentile in blocks above average, and is regarded as a very strong defensive catcher. However, the missed backhanded pick on the walk-off wild pitch wasn't one of Murphy's stronger defensive moments.
Overall, the Braves have been more than solid defensively in 2025. However, this recent run of sloppy defense has made it that much more difficult to cover up the other holes on the roster. The most focused on problem (and fairly so) will remain on Atlanta's offensive struggles with men on base. However, if Austin Riley and the rest of the Braves don't start playing better defense this cold streak is going to last much longer than any of us want.