The Atlanta Braves finally broke their six-game losing streak on Saturday evening in Denver. Things looked poised for another impressive Braves win over the Rockies on Sunday afternoon. However, things went sideways in the late innings which led to an embarrassing and unacceptable loss.
Any momentum the team gained on Saturday was squashed in the bottom of the eighth inning at Coors Field. Atlanta carried a comfortable 8-2 lead into the bottom of the eighth inning thanks to a power surge in earlier innings. Jorge Soler homered twice in this game for his fourth homer of the series. Austin Riley and Travis d'Arnaud also hit home runs in a game that felt destined for a series win.
However, that is not what happened. Spencer Schwellenbach's fantastic start was wasted despite having tossed six innings with two runs, six hits, two walks, and seven strikeouts. He once again impressed Braves fans with electric stuff on the mound despite having little professional experience.
The Braves lost to the Rockies, 9-8. They had a six-run lead in the eighth inning, but lost. They went from winning two of three to losing two of three here because of it. This feels like rock bottom.
— Justin Toscano (@JustinCToscano) August 11, 2024
Atlanta is 61-56.
AJ Minter covered a scoreless seventh inning and that's where the good news about Atlanta's bullpen performance ended. Recently acquired Luke Jackson checked in for the eighth inning and it did NOT go well.
Jackson allowed four runs on four hits including a home run and struck out two batters through 0.2 innings. His ERA has now ballooned to 5.98 through 40.2 innings pitched including 19 walks and 41 strikeouts. His metrics have been awful in 2024 outside of his ground ball rate and chase rate. Everything else is below average including his walk percentage (10.8%), hard-hit percentage (41%), and barrel percentage (9.4%)
You'd imagine with a six-run lead that Luke would be able to get things done against a not-so-great offense. Instead, he continued to underperform and by the time Snit took him out it was too late. Jackson may not have a place on this team much longer.
Joe Jimenez, who has been one of Atlanta's best relievers, came in to try and clean up the mess. Unfortunately, that did not happen. Jimenez was lit up by a suddenly aggressive Colorado lineup. The Rockies swung early in the count as no batter saw more than three pitches from Joe during his 0.1 innings of work. Colorado completed the comeback as they scored three more runs off of Jimenez for a seven-run inning.
Former Braves prospect Victor Vodnik closed things out against his former team despite a lead-off single by Marcell Ozuna. Matt Olson hit into a double play that killed any momentum Atlanta had left and Travis d'Arnaud struck out looking to end things.
This is hands down the WORST loss of the 2024 season but as Braves' insider Grant McAuley pointed out, you could pick a few different losses over the last week to fit that narrative.
I think THAT is the #Braves' worst loss of the season. But it's hard to say exactly because there have been a lot of those in the past week alone.
— Grant McAuley (@grantmcauley) August 11, 2024
Atlanta should have exited Denver with a series win but instead lost a series to one of the worst teams in baseball. There was no reason they should have lost this series. The Braves bullpen couldn't have picked a worse time to start struggling.
It felt like the team was building some positivity and momentum after the team's first double-digit win since March. However, this season just continues to crap all over Braves fans as any positivity that remained went out the window with Sunday's loss.
This loss is unacceptable and something needs to give at this point. The team needs to figure things out or they're going to be sitting at home this October. These are games they cannot afford to lose. Now they'll head to San Francisco and hope to find themselves again.