3 Atlanta Braves to blame for disastrous series loss to bottom-dwelling A’s
The Atlanta Braves are one of the best teams in baseball, but that doesn’t make losing a series to the lowly A’s is acceptable and here’s who to blame.
Whenever any fan saw that the Atlanta Braves were going on the road for a three-game set against the Oakland A’s, a team so far in the cellar of the MLB standings they need a telescope to see the next closest team, they had to be thinking a hit parade was coming and that the NL East leaders would have a real chance to pour it on and further increase their lead in the division.
Lee Corso would be proud, because not so fast, my friend!
On Tuesday night, the Athletics notched a walk-off 2-1 win over the Braves to give them a second straight win over Atlanta and the win in the three-game series. And it’s hard to find many silver linings about the Braves’ overall performance too.
They managed just three combined runs against a team with a MLB-worst 6.68 team ERA — 1.46 worse than the 29th-ranked Rockies — and gave Oakland just their second series win of the season while also allowing the A’s to win consecutive games for the first time since May 5-6.
It’s exceptionally disappointing to see this type of dud performance from the Braves, and it’s the type of performance that deserves finger-pointing and blaming some players for leading to this immensely disheartening series loss in Oakland.
Atlanta Braves: 3 players to blame for disastrous series loss to lowly A’s
3. Marcell Ozuna, DH
Marcell May seems to be fizzling out without even a whimper.
It’s been a remarkable turnaround for Marcell Ozuna throughout the month. After hitting sub-.100 to start the year and looking like the Braves might have no choice but to DFA him and eat the remainder of his contract, he rebounded as an NL Player of the Month candidate. He was slashing .338/.404/.713 entering the series against Oakland with nine homers and 20 RBI.
But now in two games against an awful group of pitchers that have been giving runs out like useless trinkets at a networking event, Ozuna hasn’t been able to do much of anything. After going 0-for-3 on Tuesday night, he’s now hitless in his seven plate appearances against the Athletics.
To give Ozuna some credit, he only has one strikeout through the first two games of the series. On top of that, he’s made solid contact a few times that has simply resulted in loud outs. But again, this is a pitching staff to take advantage of and one of the hottest hitters in the league this month has been completely unable to accomplish that.
The big worry with Ozuna’s breakout month was that it wasn’t sustainable and that he’d fall off a cliff again before too long with his production. Hopefully, that doesn’t end up coming true. However, the way he’s ending the month doesn’t buoy any confidence in the veteran.