Good gracious, y’all.
A couple extra All-Stars is nice and everything.
But Sunday’s 2-1 loss to the Orioles completed a weekend sweep and pushed the Braves to 11 games under .500 — their worst record since the end of the 2017 season.
THE SERIES AHEAD
Are you strong enough to watch this team play the Athletics at a minor league stadium in Sacramento? Into the wee hours of the morning?
You have about 32 hours to decide.
How to watch: Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday games start at 10:05, 10:05 and 9:05 p.m., respectively. All on FanDuel Sports.
The probable starters: In chronological order …
› Didier Fuentes (0-2, 9.00) vs. Jeffrey Springs (6-6, 4.07)
› Bryce Elder (2-6, 5.92) vs. Mitch Spence (2-4, 4.06)
› Spencer Strider (3-7, 3.93) vs. LH JP Sears (7-7, 4.76)
The scouting report: More on all this (plus that minor league ballpark) tomorrow, but the Athletics are 37-55 on the season. Which makes them one of just five teams in baseball with a worse record than your Atlanta Braves.
A-TOWN DOWN
What to say that hasn’t already been said?
The Braves are lost and there’s no sign they’ll find their way again.
A few unpleasant stats:
› Atlanta is 2-8 in its last 10 games.
› It scored just 25 runs (third fewest in the majors) and was shut out three times in that span.
› Overall, the Braves were held scoreless in 76 of their last 89 innings.
› Sunday’s loss pushed them to 11-22 in one-run games this season. That’s the most such losses in the bigs.
As the AJC’s Olivia Sayer writes, there’s no clear fix for the offense or the ragtag rotation and the Braves are approaching white flag territory.
Other than that, things are going great.
ATTABOY, MATTY
Beloved former Brave Freddie Freeman will start at first base for the National League at next week’s All-Star game — and his return to Atlanta will surely be a major storyline.
But can we give Matthew Kent Olson some love, too?
The current Braves first baseman, Lilburn native and freshly minted All-Star reserve started the season slow at the plate. Over his last 30 games, though, he’s hitting .330 with a .995 OPS and 24 RBIs.
He also leads Atlanta with 17 home runs — and plays Gold Glove-level defense.
“Just speaks volumes to those three guys because we haven’t had the best first half,” Braves manager Brian Snitker said of Olson and fellow All-Stars Chris Sale and Ronald Acuña Jr.
“A lot of times, teams that do what we’re doing have one representative because they have to. We have three that deserved it.”