Lessons learned from the Braves’ series defeat against the Giants

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

Braves suffer rare series defeat against Giants

The series loss to San Francisco was Atlanta’s first since the 2016 season. Atlanta lost its opener 5-3 on Tuesday, then won 3-1 on Wednesday thanks to another strong performance from Chris Sale. Thursday’s 4-2 loss continued a trend. The Braves have a 41-7 record this season when they hold opponents to three runs or fewer. However, they are just 6-31 when their opponent scores four or more runs. Worse, they have lost 27 straight games when the opponent has scored at least four runs. The last time the Braves won a game in which the opponent scored at least four runs was April 17 in Houston, when they beat the Astros 5-4.

The loss also ended the Braves’ three-game winning streak on July 4. Atlanta has a 28-17 record on Independence Day since moving to Atlanta in 1966.

Chris Sale continues dominant first half

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

Unfortunately, Jurrjens finished the season with a record of 13-6 as he struggled with a knee injury in the second half and missed the entire month of September.

Adam Duvall shows signs of life

Adam Duvall went hitless in Thursday’s loss, ending a five-game hitting streak. The veteran outfielder has struggled for most of the season, so any sign of progress is a welcome sight. In Wednesday’s game, he recorded three hits, which was his first multi-hit game since June 13. Duvall had seven hits during his five-game hitting streak, the same total he had in his previous 17 games before the streak began.

While Duvall’s struggles have certainly caused some concern among fans, he, like so many of his teammates, has significantly underperformed. Duvall entered Thursday with a wOBA of .256 and an xwOBA of .319. In case you’re interested, last season he had an xwOBA of .304 while posting a wRC+ of 116 in 92 games with the Red Sox.

Duvall is striking out less, walking more, and entered Thursday with virtually the same barrel percentage and hard hit rate as last season. He’s a notoriously inconsistent hitter, so it wouldn’t be a surprise if he were to give up a run.

Austin Riley continues to swing a hot bat

Austin Riley was 1-for-3 with a double and a sacrifice fly in Thursday’s loss. He has a .364 batting average with seven home runs and a 1.207 OPS in his last 18 games since June 14. He has 13 extra-base hits in that span, matching his total from the previous 50 games. This seems to be another incredible stretch for a player who basically defines his seasons by playing reasonably well most of the time and playing incredibly well for about six weeks each year.

Raisel Iglesias moves up the list of his career saves

Braves closer Raisel Iglesias recorded his 21st save of the season in Wednesday’s win. He now has 13 consecutive saves, the fifth-longest streak in the major leagues. Iglesias has recorded 211 career saves, which puts him 50th on the all-time list. He is one save behind Mets closer Edwin Diaz. Iglesias has recorded 55 saves since joining the Braves, which puts him 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 runs, big problems

The Braves hit two straight home runs in the series opener and then didn’t leave the field for the rest of the series. This year, they’re 12 of 19 when they don’t hit a home run. While some disappointing stretches in the past have been marked by missed balls and would-be home runs dying in the lane, the Braves have also simply interspersed bad at-bats with unlucky swings here and there. Given how many wins they’ve already given up because those missed balls didn’t leave the field, they probably can’t afford to take a real step back on offense either.