5 Braves responsible for another depressing series loss to the Nationals

With a thrilling win over the Cleveland Guardians on April 28, the Atlanta Braves improved to 19-7 on the year. It felt like they weren’t playing their best baseball and yet they not only had the best record in the NL East, but also the best record in the majors. Since going 12 games above .500, things have only gotten worse for Atlanta.

The Braves went just 13-14 in May, which ended with a frustrating home series loss to the Washington Nationals. They had lost three of four to their NL East rivals at Truist Park. Atlanta bounced back to win three of their next five games, but had another series against the Nats on the horizon.

Sure enough, Atlanta found a way to once again lose three of four to Washington. This is especially disappointing because they won the first game of the series before losing each of the next three games. Atlanta is now 35-28, which isn’t bad, but they are only 16-20 after their strong start. It’s not time to panic yet, but things are certainly not going in Atlanta’s favor right now.

Almost the entire team deserves some sort of blame for losing another four-game series to the Nationals 30-35, but these five players in particular deserve the lion’s share.

Sean Murphy suffered an oblique injury on opening day, putting him out of action for nearly two full months. He came back at the end of May and just hasn’t seemed the same guy since.

Murphy replaced Travis d’Arnaud as the team’s starter but did virtually nothing in this series. The 29-year-old came to the plate 12 times and recorded just one hit. To his credit, that hit cleared the fence for a home run, but it came in a game in which Atlanta led 7-2 in the seventh inning. They would lose this match with a final score of 7-3.

To make matters worse, Murphy made a throwing error in the second game of the series, allowing CJ Abrams to score and Nick Senzel to take second. There’s a chance that Senzel would have beat Murphy’s throw even if it was on target, but we’ll never know. Senzel ended up scoring shortly after and the Braves lost that game 2-1. Murphy’s no-hitter in his four at-bats with a pair of strikeouts didn’t help matters either.

Shortly after the Braves promoted inexperienced prospect Spencer Schwellenbach from AA to the majors, Atlanta did the same with Hurston Waldrep who had made only one start in AAA this season before being called up to make his MLB debut. Like Schwellenbach, Waldrep made his debut against the Nationals.

Waldrep’s MLB career got off to a strong start as he went three scoreless innings. He even faced the minimum during these three frames. However, in the fourth inning, things fell apart for the 22-year-old.

The Nationals would score seven runs that inning, highlighted by a three-run homer off the bat of Keibert Ruiz who only has a .538 OPS this season. Waldrep showed some flashes, but he also let what was a 2-0 lead get completely out of hand. By the time the book was closed on his performance, the Braves trailed 7-2. With where their offense stood, the game was essentially over.

Waldrep pitched a little better than the stat line indicates, but the bottom line is he allowed seven runs and didn’t complete four innings. Most teams lose any game in which their starter puts up this kind of performance, and the Braves are no exception.

Waldrep ended up allowing seven runs in his MLB debut, but his final line could have been much better. He left the game after allowing four runs in the fourth and with the bases loaded with two outs. A pitch from the usually reliable Aaron Bummer would have put the Braves out of the frame just two runs behind. This does not happen.

Bummer was brought in to face the nation’s struggling leadoff hitter, CJ Abrams. The 23-year-old had just three hits in his last 29 at-bats Sunday. Waldrep took him out twice. Going southpaw Bummer to face southpaw Abrams made sense, but it immediately backfired on Brian Snitker.

Bummer’s first pitch was deposited down the right field line and into the corner. He scored three points. What was a manageable 4-2 deficit turned into a 7-2 deficit in the blink of an eye. Waldrep loaded the bases, but Bummer had been as reliable as possible since Atlanta’s first series in Philadelphia. He was not executed on Sunday. The Braves ended up scoring five runs that day, which makes the situation even more frustrating.

The Braves haven’t set the world on fire offensively this season, but Ozzie Albies was off to a good start, posting an .878 OPS in his first 15 games before being hit on the foot by a pitch and landing on the HE. He would return just 11 days later, but saw his OPS drop more than 150 points in the process. His struggles continued in this series in Washington.

Albies batted at the top of the order against left-handed pitchers with Ronald Acuña Jr. out for the year and batted fifth against right-handers. No matter where Snitker places him, Albies isn’t producing. That remained true in this series as he only managed three hits in his 17 at-bats.

Albies produced one run, but that came in Atlanta’s 7-3 loss. He scored one point, but it ended in a three-point victory. In other words, when he did something, it was mostly inconsequential. The Braves desperately need Albies to come out of his funk to get their offense going. He didn’t achieve that in this series.

Over the past three seasons, Austin Riley has been as consistent a superstar as there has been in the National League. He had finished in the top seven in NL MVP voting each time and supplanted himself into the middle of baseball’s best batting order. So far this season, he just hasn’t looked like the player he once was.

Riley was struggling this season, posting a .707 OPS in 37 games before his team suffered an injury. He sat out for a few weeks before returning to action and all he’s done since is wrestle some more.

Riley has only six hits in 34 at-bats with ten strikeouts since returning to action before this series. In the four games he played against the Nationals, he had three hits in 15 at-bats. A .200 average over four games isn’t as bad as Albies or Murphy, but those players don’t have the same MVP expectations as Riley.

Adding to his offensive struggles, Riley made a throwing error that led to a Washington run in Game 3 of the series. It was mostly inconsequential as Washington won the game handily, but it only adds to the frustrating struggles Riley has had throughout the season.