POSTCAST: Atlanta Braves swept by last place Baltimore Orioles after losing series finale REACTION

POSTCAST: Atlanta Braves swept by last place Baltimore Orioles after losing series finale REACTION

Despite Shawn Murphy’s best efforts, Atlanta Braves dropped the series finale 2 to1, meaning they just got swept by a last place team. Let’s talk about it. This is the Braves Post Cast, your instant game reaction for the Atlanta Braves, part of the Locked On Network. your team every day. Yes. Welcome on in to the Braves postcast, part of Locked on Sports Atlanta, where we cover your Atlanta sports teams each and every day. I’m your host, Lindseay Crosby, author of the Braves Today newsletter over at braves.com. You can follow me on social media at Crosby Baseball. That is Jake Mastriani, host of Locked on Braves. And uh we are here to do a post-mortem on Atlanta’s um two to1 loss to the Baltimore Orioles as well as what it feels like their 2025 season and the chances of um getting back into contention. Jake, we’re going to talk about the pitching in a few minutes because we always do and you know Grant Holmes did some pretty good stuff. Uh but we saw the Braves change up the lineup today. We saw Ronald Luna Jr. get a day off. He hasn’t missed a game since he came back. Although he did leave that um blowout against I think it was the Mets, the Bryce Elder start. He did leave that one early just for safety reasons. It was wet. Uh we saw Barceluda today off. Michael Harris start off on the bench and Atlanta still manages just one run coming via Son Shawn Murphy solo shot and they end up dropping this one. It’s it’s the same stuff, but at the same time, it felt like today was just especially unlucky for Atlanta from the very beginning with that flare um base hit by Jackson Holiday. Yeah, I mean, what can you say at this point about the team? It doesn’t doesn’t really matter, you know, how you line it up, what you do. They’re just they’re not good. They’re not good offensively. Like, we can definitively say that at this point. I’ve held on to hope that the players will finally start to figure it out and hit like they have in the past. But again, we’re a year and a half into this now and it’s just they’re not good. They they don’t know. They don’t know how to manufacture runs. Um whatever approach change they’ve tried to make, it’s not working. Um and whether those approach changes are correct or not, they’re they certainly don’t seem to be correct for this group of hitters that the Braves have. You get Ronald, he did come into this one.
Yeah. and he got a pinch hit appearance late. But you take Akuna out of the game and I understand why. But then you also happen to find a lefty that just for whatever reason have has Matt Olsen’s number. He goes over four today with three strikeouts. So you take out one of your best players in Akunia and your best player, hottest player right now goes over four with three strikeouts. It’s going to be tough. It’s going to be really, really tough. And as you said, Sean Murphy did all of he could very nearly tied the game up with two home runs today. Just missed one off the top of the wall and then did get one out. how he hit that ball out to center field, I do not know. That is just a really strong human being. Um, but you know, barely missed one off the top of the wall that came back in and then got a home run on the ball off the top of the wall that went out.
I think for me though, it it speaks to the fact that he and Bowwin both need to be in here. I’m sure this was just a day for Ozuna and that he’s going to be back. And look, Bowwin didn’t necessarily have a great game. He did get a walk, but he he failed to come through with Shawn Murphy on third and one out in this game, too. But they’re just giving you more. Each of them are giving you more than Ozuna is giving you right now. And I think both of them need to be in the lineup together more often. Uh we need to see this going forward. Whether that’s, you know, you just give Ozuna some more days here or there, or you put him on the injury list like you should have weeks ago.
Yeah.
Uh but it’s just I mean, it’s just it’s more bad offense. Unfortunately, Lindsay, I don’t think it’s the last time we’re going to have to have this conversation uh in throughout the second half of the season, but you just didn’t do enough. I mean, your pitching in this one did plenty and you just couldn’t get anything going. I talked about it all the time, just not having those constant chances throughout the game. Um, you go over six with runners in scoring position, but I feel like there were really only two or three innings where you had an opportunity to do something in this one. And it’s just again it’s the same same story that we’ve been talking about for a year and a half now. Offense just isn’t able to step up and do enough when you need him to.
Yeah. And when you look at, you know, it was seven hits, Jerks and Proar had two of them, right? He, you know, he had one in the first inning and then Atlanta didn’t do anything until I want to say it was was it 14 straight batters, something like that, that Trevor Rogers retired after that leadoff single and then Shawn Murphy had two. Alb’s picked up one in the ninth. Stuart Fairchild had two of your hits and one of them was he was trying to give away a bunt, like an out with a bunt and he got on. Actually, no, I guess he was he was bunting to get on, but the point is he had two
and it’s just nothing else from anybody else, right? Austin Bradley goes 0 for three. He’s been incredibly hot in July, but not today. And I know that people want the Braves to blow it up. And I think it’s kind of it’s kind of uh understood that Atlanta’s not really going to touch those multi-year deals if they make trades. But at the same time, like one, I don’t know what you would get from Marceluna right now. I mean, he does he he he has full 10 and five rights. He can block any deal and he’s not been good for multiple months now. So, it doesn’t feel like you’d get much for him. Maybe move some relievers and grab some guys out of Gwynette. But the only thing you really can do to your point is play the guys who need playing time, right? Get Baldwin and Murphy in there every day. Go ahead and let Ozuna get the surgery so that maybe he can have a normal off season in free agency and that kind of stuff. It’s just I mean, as much as you can stick a fork in a team that had World Series aspirations to enter the year, they’re now 39 and 50. So they’re 11 games below 500. And again, they just got swept by a fifth place team. And the stat here at the very end is they are one and nine in their last 10 games. And in six of those losses, they scored either one or zero runs.
And like that’s Yeah. No consistency offensively. I mean, it’s it’s the same thing. They’ll have a breakout game every now and then where they score six or seven and we all get hopeful thinking that something’s going to change and then it’s zero or one the next day and you just you can’t overcome that. Um I I think if you look forward to the the second half and I know we’re not quite there yet at least in terms of the All-Star breakdown being that breaking point. I saw a good point on social media. I forget who it was so I apologize for not giving credit here. you need to play Ballowin more often anyway, but also just because you want to try to get that rookie of the year so that you can get those that extra pick and all of that. That’s one thing. I also I just want to and I know I think you’re going to touch on this maybe in an upcoming podcast. I want to see them figure out what is their identity going to be offensively and just pick something, you know, because this has been a boomer bust offense in the past and that’s been great for the regular season, but I do think it’s it’s come back to hurt them in the postseason.
Yeah. So, I think they they rightfully wanted to try to make a change to become a more well-rounded offense, but it’s made them just worse. It’s it’s made it’s taken away the power and they’re not hitting for average. And so, I just don’t think this is the group that you can do that with. So, for what I really want to see with this offense going for other than players just kind of hopefully turning things around, I want to see this offense just find out what their identity is going to be again because right now they just seem lost. They they seem stuck in the middle of not being that boo boomer bus team that they were, but also they’re just not quite capable of being this team that’s more well-rounded. They can hit for average, do the little things. They certainly know they can’t do the little things. And it’s just find out what you what you want to be. What offense do you want to be going forward? That that’s kind of what I’m going to be looking for with this offense in the second half.
Yeah, the the sacrifice that they made to take more pitches and draw more walks. They’re not significantly better in that area. And what they gave up was not the strikeouts. They gave up the booms. They gave up the home runs, the aggressive hitting, the hard hit balls. That’s what they gave up to try to draw those more walks. And it just doesn’t work with the personnel or the inconsistency from the entire offense. So definitely a lot of improvement we need to see in the second half. Something we did see good today, I was surprisingly pleased with the pitching performances. obviously wasn’t enough to win, but not their fault. We’ll get to that next right here on the Braves Postcast. You ever wish managing your money felt easier? With Monarch money, it can. Whether you’re growing your savings or planning a big purchase like an office park, Monarch puts you in the driver’s seat. It’s like having your own personal CFO, giving you full visibility and control over your finances. Because Monarch Money is more than just a budgeting app. It’s a complete financial command center. you can track all your accounts, investments, and spending in one place. So, in addition to just managing your money, you’re also building wealth. There’s sometimes when I kind of look and I realize, oh my gosh, I’ve spent so much money on streaming subscriptions just to watch the Atlanta Braves because MLB puts games on seven or eight different broadcast outlets. Monarch Money can help you realize how much you’re spending and selectively choose where to spend your money going forward. So take control of your finances with Monarch Money. Use code locked on MLB at monarchmoney.com for 50% off your first year. That’s monarchmoney.com. Code locked on MLB for half off your first year. All right, Jake. Uh so Grant Holmes gets the start here. He’s pretty much your most reliable remaining starter. Uh six innings, four hits, two runs, three walks to five strikeouts. wasn’t as incredibly efficient as we would have liked, right? Takes uh 96 pitches to get through his six innings, only 61 strikes. Flip side for that, Trevor Rogers, 88 pitches, 60 strikes, but he absolutely did enough to like to win. That’s a quality start. That normally would be enough. The thing that I’m concerned about is with all of these injuries, you put Schwobach on the 60-day IIL today to make room for Jesse Chavez. Can you like can Grant Holmes continue to put up this kind of innings all season or is he going to hit that 150 kind of wall and all of a sudden you’re going to September is going to roll around and you’re not going to have anybody from your opening date rotation?
Yeah, I think part of that depends on where you are too. Like if this season just becomes completely out of reach and I know a lot of you think that that that’s already there that that’s the case. Yeah. Are you going to push Grant Holmes to 150 innings if he’s going to be a piece for you in your rotation going forward? Like what is the I mean, you want to you want to try to stretch him out so that hopefully in future years, you know, you can push him to more 175, 180,
but I mean, how far do you really want to push him if this season is just a lost season right now? Um, but you’re going to need them. I mean, if you had any hopes and of trying dreams, which that’s what they are at this point or dreams of of getting back in it this season,
you need Grant Holmes. And this start I think is a microcosm of kind of who he is. We’ve talked about it all the time. You know, the walks are something that he struggled with. The home runs. Well, you know, he had a little bit of that. Now, he I will say the defense was really good in this one for the Braves. It kept him in the game. It made several plays. He got three double plays uh in this one that really helped Grant Holmes because he was putting on a lot of base, especially early in this game. Seemed like he was just really struggling with that command also early.
Yep. Um but yeah, he he just, you know, he was able to to work through it. So again, he just continues to give you those valuable innings, keep you in games despite all of that, despite the control issues at times, 17 whiffs in this one. U it’s just really frustrating. I talk about the defense, which I think for the most part’s been really good this year. We talked about the starting pitching, you know, up until you lose S and TW. It’s just again, I know we’ve already we moved on from the offense, but it’s just even more frustrating that you’ve got you’ve had pretty much everything else working for you, defense, pitching, and the one thing that you really were hoping was going to carry you this year, no matter what was that offense. And it’s just been so bad that it couldn’t overcome good pitching and good defense. But, uh, but yeah, Grant Holmes doing, you know, doing his job, doing exactly what Braves needed him to do, keeping them in this ball game. Just wasn’t enough offense. Yeah. And then Dylan Lee seven pitches for his inning which is pretty dominant. Pierce Johnson Risel Glacius are two guys that either Glacius unrestricted free agent after this year. Johnson has a club option so both could be on the move. Uh it’s it’s tempting when you see these guys pitch backto back like this in a game like this was today. It’s tempting to say like, “Hey, there’s the showcase. There’s the look. These guys are pitching well right now. they’re available. Uh again, you’re 11 games below 500. I know at some point in time, and I you alluded to it, like we may think that this is done, that this team is finished, but the Braves have to make that decision.
If they do, it feels like because of the issues with Ozuna, because of the questions about say Aussie and things like that, it feels like the biggest trade ships for this team are those two guys. Is it is it the right usage rather than bring I know it was close and you could have got back into it and that’s why they use them, but is it right to keep running them out there every high leverage you get and let them show that they are in good shape and pitching well so that you can make them more attractive for a trade? Like is this the way that Braves should be handling this? Yeah, I mean I think so. And look, while we’re saying it’s mostly done, the Braves aren’t thinking that or at least I hope that’s not the case. So, I mean, they’re playing to win. They’re playing for a miracle. I mean, if I’m on that team and I’m a player, I I can’t just sit here and give up. I got, you know, how many ever games left on this season? 70s something games left. I can’t just give up on that. So, they’re going to continue to manage it and play like that. I think they should. And even, you know, even in that, it’s still showcasing those guys and and showing what they can do if you do ultimately trade them.
Yeah. All right. So, again, uh, Braves dropped this one two to one. They have dropped the series. Uh they are now 11 games below 500 which I think might be the low point. I haven’t necessarily checked that but I believe that’s if it’s not the low point it’s pretty close. Um every time we think there’s rock bottom there is yet another level to go to. Uh so the Braves are off tomorrow. They are flying out today apparently for Sacramento for three against the A’s. Rotation here. Dear Fuentes versus lefty Jeffrey Springs on Tuesday. Bryce Elder versus righty Mitch Spence on Wednesday. And then Spencer Strider versus lefty JP Sears on Thursday. Going to be a tough series for everybody. That’s not an easy ballpark to play in. These games are very late for all of us. 10:05 Eastern the first two days. 9:05 Eastern on Getaway Day, which is kind of surprising because Atlanta has to play the very next day in St. Louis. But we will be back with uh with more. It’ll be some combination of me and Jake for this week. These are late games again, but we’re going to be here. We’re going to talk about it. Uh because if nothing else, as you guys have said numerous times in the comments, thank you for being here, by the way. This is like therapy at times. Uh so for Jake Mastriani, I’m Lindseay Crosby. This has been the Braves Postcast.

The Atlanta Braves got swept by the last-place Baltimore Orioles despite Grant Holmes allowing only two runs over six innings, putting them now 11 games below .500. Postcast host Lindsay Crosby and Locked On Braves host Jake Mastroianni went LIVE after the game to break down all of the action.

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