What to remember from the Braves’ loss to the Giants

The Atlanta Braves lost 4-2 to the San Francisco Giants on Thursday and lost the series to even their current home record at 3-3. Atlanta is nine games behind the National League East-leading Phillies, who arrive at Truist Park for a three-game series on Friday.

Braves suffer rare series loss to Giants

The loss to San Francisco was Atlanta’s first since the 2016 season. Atlanta lost its opener 5-3 on Tuesday and then won 3-1 on Wednesday behind another solid effort from Chris Sale. Thursday’s 4-2 loss continued that pattern. The Braves are 41-7 this season when holding opponents to three runs or fewer. However, they are just 6-31 when their opponents score four runs or more. Worse still, they have lost 27 straight games when their opponents score at least four runs. The last time the Braves won a game where their opponents scored at least four runs was April 17 in Houston, when they beat the Astros 5-4.

The loss also snapped the Braves’ three-game winning streak on July 4. Atlanta is 28-17 in games played on Independence Day since moving to Atlanta in 1966.

Chris Sale continues to dominate the first half

Sale allowed one run and struck out nine in six innings in Wednesday’s win, lowering his ERA to 2.71 and his FIP to 2.24 for the season. Sale also earned his 11th win of the season, which puts him in first place in the National League and tied for the major league lead. Wins don’t mean much to pitchers these days, but no Braves pitcher has won 12 games before the All-Star break since Jair Jurrjens in 2011. More importantly, Sale is now second in fWAR among starting pitchers and first in the NL. That he did it despite making one to three fewer starts than most of the guys immediately behind him in the fWAR race is even more impressive.

Unfortunately, Jurrjens finished the season with a 13-6 record due to a knee injury sustained in the second half of the season. He missed the entire month of September.

Adam Duvall shows signs of life

Adam Duvall went hitless in Thursday’s loss, snapping a five-game hitting streak. The veteran outfielder has struggled most of the season, so any signs of improvement are welcome. He had three hits in Wednesday’s game, his first multi-hit game since June 13. Duvall has seven hits in his five-game hitting streak. That’s the same total he had in his previous 17 games before the streak began.

While Duvall’s struggles have certainly caused some angst among fans, he has severely underperformed statistically, like so many of his teammates. Duvall entered Thursday with a .256 wOBA and a .319 xwOBA. If you’re curious, he had a .304 xwOBA last season, where he posted a 116 wRC+ in 92 games with the Red Sox.

Duvall has fewer strikeouts, walks more and entered Thursday’s game with nearly the same hitting percentage and slugging rate as last season. He’s known for being an inconsistent hitter, so it wouldn’t be surprising to see him score a run.

Austin Riley continues to hit hard

Austin Riley went 1 for 3 with a double and a sacrifice fly in Thursday’s loss. He’s hitting .364 with seven homers and has a 1.207 OPS over his last 18 games dating back to June 14. He’s had 13 extra-base hits in that span, matching his total over the previous 50 games. This seems like another incredible stretch from a guy who essentially defines his seasons by doing reasonably well most of the time and playing incredibly well for about six weeks each year.

Raisel Iglesias moves up career saves list

Braves closer Raisel Iglesias recorded his 21st save of the season in Wednesday’s win. It extended his save streak to 13 consecutive games, which is the fifth-longest in the major leagues. Iglesias has 211 saves in his career, which ranks 50th on the all-time list. He is one save behind Mets closer Edwin Diaz. Iglesias has 55 saves since joining the Braves, which is tied with Mike Stanton for eighth on the franchise’s all-time list. He is two saves behind Rick Camp for seventh. Craig Kimbrel is the franchise leader with 186 saves.

No home run, big problems

The Braves hit back-to-back home runs in the series opener, and didn’t leave the field for the rest of the series. They’re 12-19 when they don’t hit a home run this year. While some disappointing stretches in the past have been marked by barrels and potential home runs that perished on the track, the Braves have also interspersed mediocre free-hitting with the odd unlucky hit here and there. Given how many wins they’ve already given up because those barrels didn’t leave the field, they probably can’t afford to take a real step backwards offensively, either.