ATLANTA -- In a rare instance of bullpen inefficiency, the Atlanta Braves could not hold off the Boston Red Sox on Tuesday, dropping their second straight game in the interleague series, 6-3. Here are three observations from the game:
These aren't necessarily uncharted waters for the Braves, but coughing up late leads isn't a habit for this group. The bullpen, on the whole, has picked up right where it left off last season, putting up some of the best numbers in the league and running through opponents when a hot-or-cold offense spots it a lead. This time was different, though.
Even with manager Fredi Gonzalez running out one of his most effective bullpen arms to date, middle relief and new strikeout aficionado Anthony Varvaro, the Braves' 3-2 lead entering the seventh inning was in danger the minute Boston's rookie shortstop Xander Bogaerts stepped into the box with one out. His single would lead to another single, which led to a pitching change followed by two more singles and even more problems in the infield.
In short, the wheels fell off the wagon like they have so few times before with this relief corps, a unit that owns baseball's best fielding-independent pitching (FIP) and fifth-best WAR.
"Two bloops hits and a broken-bat comebacker that (Luis Avilan) might have been able to get that ball and maybe get a 1-2-3 double play and get out of the inning, but it didn't happen," Gonzalez said. "They kept keeping the line moving and they put a big number there, and we couldn't comeback from it."
Following Bogaerts single off Varvaro, former AL MVP Dustin Pedroia laced his third hit of the night to put two on. Gonzalez turned to Avilan, the lefty specialist who has struggled to live up to his impressive rookie season, but things did not get much better -- though there was a bit of bad luck at play. The middle of the Red Sox order, David Ortiz and Jonny Gomes, blooped back-to-back singles into Turner's shallow outfield -- perfectly-placed popups, really -- to tie the game. Grady Sizemore delivered the go-ahead run on the aforementioned comeback shot to the mound, one that included parts of his bat that apparently disrupted Avilan's fielding.
"The bat got in the way, (looking) from the bench. I haven't seen the tape," Gonzalez said. "It happened ... the series before with (Rockies shortstop Troy) Tulowitzki. It was a ground ball he was gonna field and here comes the bat spinning and broken and, you know, he couldn't make the play. That's the same thing that I'm thinking with Avi."
By the time the Jackie Bradley Jr. singled to left field and Mike Carp was hit by a pitch, the Braves bullpen had made it back to the top of the Red Sox lineup and the score read 6-3, the final tally in the team's 23rd loss of the season.
Atlanta's bullpen ERA jumped from 2.74 to 2.95 by the end of the game. It's not something that should be considered a long-term problem, or a problem at all, especially with Craig Kimbrel and David Carpenter not taking the mound and Jordan Walden still spending time on the disabled list, but it certainly bit the Braves on Tuesday night.
In three of Aaron Harang's past five starts -- and six starts overall in 2014 -- he's made it through just six innings while running up at least 100 pitches. If anything, that's a nod to crisis management. Teams are collecting hits off the 36-year-old veteran, but through a career-high strikeout rate, a limited amount of walks and a general stubbornness to let the doors get blown off, the franchise's most notable surprise contributor continues to be effective.
The Red Sox suffered a similar fate by Harang's right arm on Tuesday, though the final score tilted in their favor. When he was in the game, they pestered him. He gave up seven hits while running up his pitch count to 106, pitching out of the stretch in every single inning (through no help of his usually strong defense in the opening frame). And though two runs eventually crossed the plate, he clearly limited damage. His seven strikeouts didn't hurt in that regard. That's a tendency that's carried through the first third of this campaign.
"Had to battle to get out of that first inning with just the one run scoring and then after the layoff there on the challenge there at third with (Grady) Sizemore, I just missed a spot. I wanted to go down and away and the ball stayed middle on Ross and he was able to get base hit," Harang said of his two runs allowed. "But other than that I felt like I was able to keep any damage from happening and was able to get out of some innings when I had runners on base."
It's somewhat strange, when looking at the Braves' value leaderboard (in terms of FanGraphs' WAR), to still see Harang topping the list. By practically all accounts, Julio Teheran has proven to be the most effective starter in this rotation -- warranting talk of the "ace" tag that Gonzalez hates throwing around with young pitchers -- but it's the unexpected journeyman that's leading the way -- and nobody is really close.
Judging by WAR entering Tuesday's game, Harang has doubled up practically every starter on the roster in terms of value. That overarching metric buys into his high K rate, low number of walks and the fact that he has hasn't relied on his defense near as often, leading the rotation with a 2.20 fielding-independent pitching (FIP).
Very few would argue that to be the case, as Teheran has shown the propensity to go deep into games while stifling opposing offenses -- most recently Milwaukee and Colorado -- to tune of the second-best ERA in baseball (1.77). Still, the numbers are the numbers. Harang has been productive and, despite his high pitch count and further need for crisis management, he probably deserved a win this time around ... for whatever a win is worth nowadays.
As Gonzalez repeats seemingly with every Harang start: "You couldn't ask for anything more out of him."
Once again, we find ourselves at a B.J. Upton crossroad where the overall production does not exactly match the short bursts of offensive promise. Sure, the overall line is nothing to get excited about, but after his latest swing adjustment, there's little doubt that the highly-compensated center fielder is in a decent place at the plate right now, even if hits aren't falling with every swing.
"He has hit the ball harder than anybody on our team the last three or four days," Gonzalez said prior to Tuesday's game. "And he's taking (the lack of hits) good, because eventually -- we always talk about the baseball gods: you're gonna break three bats and get three hits, and it will all even out at the end of the day. ⦠He's happy with his approach. I know we are."
His performance against former AL East nemesis Jon Lester did not derail his current run, either, as he finished the night with his 38th extra-base hit in a Braves uniform, a third-inning leadoff double that led to a run. On the season, his numbers still sit at a meager .210/.286/.347 with a 31 percent strikeout rate; however, since returning from St. Louis wearing a four-strikeout golden sombrero, he's hitting .242/.342/.424 with four extra-base hits and just five strikeouts. That's a sizable jump that's gone hand-in-hand with Jason Heyward's recent surge -- which included a solo home run that put Atlanta on the board against Lester -- to give the Braves much more production at the top of the lineup.
(Oh, and his younger brother Justin wasn't too bad either, going 3 for 3 with a walk to push his already ridiculous home splits to even more ridiculous levels of productivity. He's now hitting .400/.479/.664 at Turner this season. Terrifying.)
In an interview with AJC reporter Carroll Rogers, Atlanta hitting coach Greg Walker called this "by far the best stretch (Upton has) had since he's been in a Braves uniform." Walker credited Upton's alteration of his hand movement prior to his swing, which has become less "violent" and has flattened his swing plane.
The results are there for the taking. He's been productive and it's probably not just pure coincidence that the Braves have averaged 4.44 runs over this nine-game stretch.
In the end, those numbers -- even at those post-adjustment rates -- are still below salary-based expectations, but he's put in the work and there has been marked improvement from Year 1 to Year 2: his bat is showing signs of life, he's been a top-five defensive center fielder (six defensive runs saved) and, in the grand scheme of things, he's playing above replacement-level baseball. All good signs. None of which could save the Braves on Tuesday night.
"I like where I'm at. I'm comfortable right now," Upton said. "Hopefully I'll keep doing what I'm doing, (the hits will) fall eventually."
