3 Atlanta Braves to blame for disastrous series loss to bottom-dwelling A’s

2. Orlando Arcia, SS

For the majority of the season, shorstop Orlando Arcia has made the Braves coaching staff look extremely smart for opting to stick with the veteran to ostensibly replace Dansby Swanson in the infield over the likes of Vaughn Grissom and Braden Shewmake.

He’s hitting over .300 for the season, has been fantastic defensively — which he admittedly has been at times in Oakland too — and had also delivered some clutch hits. Unfortunately, none of the good things that we’ve seen at the plate this season were on display against the A’s.

Arcia is a stunning 0-for-7 against pretty plainly the worst pitching staff in baseball. And it’s worse than that. Arcia is tied for the team-high in strikeouts (3) in the series, but he’s tied with Matt Olson in that regard, who has been arguably the team’s best hitter in Oakland.

Moreover, Arcia has been up to bat with runners in scoring position three times in the series, the most of anyone on the Braves in the two games, and has only advanced the runner once, which was on a flyout that moved Kevin Pillar to third after a double. Otherwise, he had a strikeout with Ozzie Albies on second and a game-ending pop-up with Eddie Rosario on second.

This obviously isn’t a reason to abandon all hope and belief in Arcia, but it’s most definitely not been the finest series for the shortstop and his shortcomings have been extremely costly.