Overall, the Atlanta Braves have little to actually complain about. They have a top-3 offense in baseball by fWAR, and their pitching staff, while it has slipped in recent weeks, is still pretty strong, and the bullpen is in the top 10. All of that has led to the Braves having the best record in MLB at the moment by a comfortable margin, with a very healthy 9.5-game lead in the NL East. However, that doesn't mean trouble isn't lurking.
Every team loses dumb games sometimes, and Saturday's matchup against the Nationals. Atlanta's pitching staff held the Nationals' surprisingly potent offense to just two runs and struck them out 15 times. However, the offense only mustered a single hit, and the Braves were shut out to knot the series at one game apiece.
Again, weird things happen throughout the baseball season. Sometimes you outhit your opponents by a wide margin and lose, sometimes you are outplayed for eight innings, and you come back and win out of nowhere. That is just baseball. However, Saturday's shutout loss is a part of a recent trend that could spell trouble on offense for the Braves going forward, because that is far from the only time the Braves have been shut out lately.
Braves' offense is showing signs of regression, and they need to get their act together
It was inevitable that the Braves' offense would have tough games. Not only does EVERY team go through low points to some degree, but the Braves did lose Drake Baldwin to an oblique injury. When you lose one of your best hitters, some drop-off is to be expected.
However, this does feel like a little more than a modest dip. As Braves beat writer Mark Bowman correctly pointed out, three of the four total times the Braves have been shut out this year have come in the last 10 games. This isn't just missing Baldwin. Ronald Acuña Jr. and Austin Riley have not looked like themselves all season. Ozzie Albies is slumping after a tremendous start to the season. Ha-Seong Kim hasn't even looked like a big league hitter since returning from the IL. That is a lot of bad news and doesn't even include Matt Olson's mini-slump the last couple of weeks.
The good news is that despite the offensive inconsistency, the Braves have still found a way to keep winning baseball games. While not a guarantee, all of these guys are veterans who have hit in the big leagues before. At least some of them will rebound, and Baldwin will return at some point. However, until we see more Braves hitters find consistency at the plate again, we might be in store for more lows in the near future.
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