Atlanta Braves: Red Sox Benchmark For Braves
A weekend series in Boston gave the Braves the toughest challenge they’ve had all season. Playing a potential world series contender provided the Braves with a perspective of how far they’ve come– and what still lacks.
Pinpointing weaknesses for Boston is difficult. They have one of the best bullpens in baseball. Their hitters can make contact and swing for power. Their starting rotation, when playing at full potential, can out pitch any team’s.
The Braves have exceeded expectations thus far this season and have playoff hopes. As arguably the most complete team in professional baseball, Atlanta’s performance in Boston provides us with an idea of how they compare to the elite competition.
The offense
Strength continued to play as strength. In the final two games of the series, the Braves put up six and seven runs on the Sox. Even in game one, where the team scored two runs, the offense played well enough to keep the Braves in the game until a late surge by the Red Sox closed out any hopes of a win.
In each game, the Braves matched or exceeded the Red Sox in hits and had more overall walks. The biggest difference was Boston’s ability to drive in runners on base during the first two games.
In the other two games, the Braves hit three home runs (from Flowers, Acuna, and Swanson respectively).
Each team has similar offensive styles. The Red Sox have power potential, but unlike their rivals the Yankees, the Red Sox don’t depend on the home run to score runs. Similarly, the Braves manufacture runs through extra-base hits, not home runs.
The extra power helped the Red Sox in the first two games. While the Braves are working toward a nice balance of power and contact, they still need that extra big bat to provide more powerful presence.
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The Starting Rotation
Neither Julio Tehran nor Sean Newcomb pitched spectacularly in their outings.
Tehran muddled through six innings with four walks, three earned runs and two home runs. Tehran managed to work his way out of trouble when he didn’t give up home runs. By the time he left the game, he was only down one run.
Likewise, Newcomb could not control his pitches. He also surrendered four walks and three runs, but in three innings of work. His short outing was an anomaly considering how well he has pitched this season. It also reminds fans that Newcomb is a young pitcher who has little experience against the league’s elite lineups.
The bright spot of the weekend was Mike Foltynewicz. Folty pitched seven innings, surrendered one run and pitched himself out of any trouble that a challenging Red Sox line up posed. Oh yeah, he also outpitched Chris Sale.
Atlanta’s starters pitch well enough to keep the Braves in games for the offense to show up late. Tehran, Newcomb, and Foltynewicz make a wonderful two, three, four combinations on any team. The problem is that Tehran is supposed to be the “one”.
While the Braves starters ensure they can hang in a game with anybody, they don’t have a true number one pitcher who can shut down everybody and deliver a game on his own.
The Bullpen
Late pitching has been a weakness all year. Once again, the Red Sox exposed their shortcomings over the weekend.
Five pitchers combined to give up five runs (three earned) in the Braves 8-6 loss on Saturday while Jesse Biddle and Matt Wisler gave up three runs combined in the 6-2 loss on Friday.
Atlanta has two stand out relievers: Shane Carle and Dan Winkler. Both have pitched reliably, though neither is a strikeout machine. They also don’t walk many hitters.
While walks have haunted most of the Braves bullpen this season, they weren’t the catalyst for the bullpen’s struggles in Boston. Too much contact and smart base running lifted the Red Sox.
If the Braves can continue to minimize walks, the bullpen should be fine. That’s a big if. Thus far guys like AJ Minter and Sam Freeman haven’t shown the capability of not walking batters long term.
While both these young pitchers have great upside, the Braves need to look for another reliable veteran arm to help balance out the bullpen.