Atlanta’s anemic offense buries the brave as entire lineup collapses at once

When the 2024 baseball season began, the Atlanta Braves expected smooth sailing toward their seventh straight division title — and perhaps a repeat of the world championship campaign they enjoyed three years earlier .

But that was before they lost their best pitcher, their best position player and their ability to hit.

Say what?

After leading the major leagues with 104 wins, a record .501 slugging percentage and a record 307 home runs in 2023, the only thing the Braves could hit were slips.

Even before Ronald Acuña, Jr. went down with a season-ending torn ACL on May 26, his bat was as quiet as his teammates’.

Austin Riley, a notorious hitter, was never warmed by the weather. Ozzie Albies, another of Atlanta’s eight All-Stars sent to the 2023 All-Star Game, another club record, also seemed overly anxious at the plate.

So did Matt Olson, who led both leagues last year with 54 home runs and 139 RBIs, both career highs.

With the exception of veteran designated hitter Marcell Ozuna, who took over from Olson, not a single hitter wearing Braves livery produced as expected — or even close to it.

Everyone from 2022 Rookie of the Year Michael Harris II to newbie Jarred Kelenic succumbed to the pressure and tried harder, making the crime worse.

Star receiver Sean Murphy injured his opening day oblique, missed two months and became an automatic opt-out upon his return. And Adam Duvall, pressed into service as a starter after Acuña’s fall, struggled to stay above the famous Mendoza line.

The June swoon actually started months earlier – when the 2023 heavyweight suddenly transformed into an anemic version of himself.

Losing Spencer Strider early was a reality check. Injuries happen everywhere, but losing the man who led both leagues in wins (20) and strikeouts (281) — especially after unveiling a new off-speed pitch that stymied opponents in practice spring – severely ravaged a rotation with only three reliable starters remaining.

Even without Acuña and Strider, manager Brian Snitker remained confident, predicting a turnaround was imminent.

But that was before his strikeout-prone horses proved lame, losing five of their first seven to the lowly Washington Nationals and showing no signs of repeating their June 21-4, 2023 rampage.

“We’re having a hard time scoring points,” the ever-stoic Snitker told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. “You can’t shoot yourself in the foot when things aren’t going well and things aren’t happening.”

Since the start of play on April 19, the Bad-News Braves have gone 16-20. Before losing at Washington on Saturday, Atlanta’s lineup boasted a .220 composite batting average, the worst of any National League team and 29th of 30 teams in the majors, trailing only the Chicago White Sox.

Their 122 points scored also ranked second to last, again leading the Chisox. Additionally, their OPS (on-base plus slugging) of .644 was ahead of only the Sox and Nationals.

For a team that started the season without a regular player over the age of 30, this is not acceptable. It’s also not acceptable for a team that ranks sixth in payroll, according to Spotrac, at $231,403,512 (virtually all position players are signed to long-term contracts).

It’s the opposite of last year, when the Braves tied records with three men with 40 homers (Acuña, Ozuna and Olson) and five with 30-plus homers (counting Albies and Riley).

Just like hitting is contagious – with every member of the lineup trying to keep the line moving – so is sagging. And when players press, the situation gets worse: too many strikeouts, not enough walks and poor production with runners in scoring position.

Snitker and his bench coach, former major league manager Walt Weiss, continue to predict the malaise will end, citing the constant barrage of hard-hit balls that turn into outs. But velocity is no guarantee of success, especially in a game where offensive production has declined overall.

With the notable exceptions of the young and hungry Baltimore Orioles, the Yankees’ dynamic duo of Aaron Judge and Juan Soto, and the three MVP candidates atop the Los Angeles Dodgers’ roster (Mookie Betts, Shohei Ohtani and Freddie Freeman), runs per game are down.

Comparing this season’s first 742 team games with last year’s first 744, Jack Sommers reported in Sports Illustrated these teams had a composite batting average of .240 and an on-base percentage of .315. Both were down five points from the previous season.

It also found that OPS decreased by 24 points – from .722 in 2023 to .698 this year – and slugging percentage decreased from .402 to .383. One possible reason for this decline, he wrote, was the increased reliance on sliders, cutters and other tough pitches, as opposed to traditional fastballs and curveballs.

New rules, including the introduction of a pitch clock and a ban on movement on the field, were meant to bolster the offense rather than stifle it.

“Not everyone can be Betts, Ohtani or Freeman,” lamented Toronto frontman George Springer, one of many stars struggling to return to his old form, in an interview with USA TODAY.

If the overall trend persists much longer, the majors could post their worst full-season batting average since 1968, known as “the year of the pitcher,” and the worst OPS since 1989, when it was of 0.695.

For the Atlanta Braves, whose 35-27 record Sunday morning left them nine games behind the Philadelphia Phillies in the National League East, time and patience might be running out.

“I’ll say something when I feel like something needs to be said,” said Snitker, an organization man originally hired by Hank Aaron in 1977.

The last thing the manager wants is a bad year that coincides with the 50th anniversary – and year-long celebration – of Aaron becoming the home run king.