Atlanta Braves blasted by Miami Marlins, 11-3

The Atlanta Braves were destroyed by the Florida Marlins on Friday night. I figured I’d lead with that so you would know where the rest of the recap was heading. This train isn’t taking a turn into Positive Town, so if you want to jump off, there’s your fair warning. What I watched of this game was nothing short of embarrassing on many fronts.

Let’s start with Aaron Harang, the starter for this game. He went 3.2 innings with ten hits and six earned runs. That’s never good at any point in the season, but it’s especially ill-timed in a playoff race in September. Add in the fact that it’s the Marlins, one of the only other teams nearby in the wild card “race” and it makes me even madder. Granted they are five back in the standings, but if the Braves starters plan on giving up six runs in every game you can count on seeing some brooms.

Unfortunately, the Marlins weren’t done after Harang. They had no intention of stopping the onslaught and completely demoralizing the Braves. It was like watching the baseball version of Conan the Barbarian: The Marlins drove the Braves before them to hear the lamentations of their women. After the Braves bullpen came into the game, the Marlins piled five more runs on top of them to bring the total to eleven.

The good news is that Atlanta did manage to score a few runs. Freddie Freeman jacked a home run in the seventh inning. Jason Heyward hit a sacrifice in the eighth that scored Chris Johnson, and Andrelton Simmons followed that up with a single that scored Emilio Bonifacio. The problem is that three runs doesn’t mean a hill of beans when the other team has ELEVEN. Just watching the game I was thinking: that’s adorable Braves, but meaningless. Can we hurry this along? I have a weekend of football worth watching.

I believe that’s a problem this team is going to face down the playoff stretch. Even though they are close to the wild card, I don’t get the sense that any of the fans actually believe they are capable of a playoff run. I don’t even get the sense that the fans will watch this team play if there’s a decent football game on at the same time. The lack of scoring, and at times the disasterous starting pitching really don’t make this team very fun to watch late in the year. There doesn’t seem to be the same spark of hope that I’ve felt with Braves playoff teams of the past.

The Marlins had 18 hits in one game. I can’t even. The Braves managed five hits and a walk. The Marlins hit five doubles, and scored all their runs without a homer. The Marlins also went 10-21 with RISP and stranded more runners than the Braves had hits. But I digress. The main thing to take away from this game is that the Braves get to play again tomorrow. That’s the positive I can really find when you get blasted in early September.

The same two teams will face off on Saturday with Nathan Eovaldi against Alex Wood. We can only hope for better as Braves fans.