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On Monday, the Braves did not get their first hit of the ninth inning until the 7th inning.
The Mariners did not get their first hit until the eighth inning.
Max Fried produced six no-hit innings, and Joe Jimenez used some magic to miraculously preserve a 1-0 Atlanta lead heading into the ninth inning.
Unfortunately, the end result was disappointing for Atlanta. AJ Minter allowed a two-run walk-off home run in the ninth inning as Atlanta lost to the Mariners 2 to 1. It was an amazing pitching performance for Atlanta, continuing their recent stretch of outstanding work on the mound. However, there simply was not enough offense to get the win.
It is hard to nit-pick too much when it comes to the Braves play as of late, but if it seems as if the Braves have not been finding as much success late in games recently (aside from Sunday), there is good reason. Cleveland and Seattle own the two best bullpen ERA marks in the majors, and both are in the top 7 of baseball in terms of overall ERA. While Atlanta has also done quite well on the mound, runs are just simply harder to come by at the moment due the quality of opposing pitching.
Of course, the fact that the top half of Atlanta’s lineup (top 4 spots combined) is 26th in OPS and 25th in wRC+ compared to every MLB team’s top half of the lineup over the past two weeks becomes a bit more relevant in close games like Monday. This is typically a game where Atlanta’s best bats rise to the occasion, like Austin Riley and Matt Olson did on Sunday. Sometimes, it just simply is not in the cards. But nine combined strikeouts between Ronald Acuna Jr., Ozzie Albies, Riley and Olson on Monday shows there is plenty of room for improvement.
