This Bud’s Not For Us: Norris blows up in Atlanta Braves loss in Boston

Freeman’s bomb, Pierzynski’s milestone highlight another lackluster loss.

When following a 4-16 team and striving desperately to find any glimmer of good news and distract yourself from thinking about the next bullpen implosion or Erick Aybar’s heroic attempts at a reverse-Mike Trout (double-digit negative Wins Above [or standard Wins Below?] Replacement), it’s natural to latch onto any bit of good fortune.

So kudos to AJ Pierzynski. His second-inning single in Wednesday’s game in Boston gave him 2,000 hits for his career, and maybe that doesn’t seem like a big deal and doesn’t reserve him the right to be fondly remembered as one of the best of his generation. Then look at the list:

Being part of a group that includes Pudge (Rodriguez), Pudge (Fisk) and Yogi is nothing to sneeze at. Well-done.  Huzzah.  Other nice superlatives.

Then in the eighth, our long national nightmare finally came to an end when Freddie Freeman put one in the cheap seats, a no-doubter home run that snapped a 15-game, 149-inning, 563-batter streak of complete power failure the likes of which I doubt we’ll ever see again (thank God). And Freeman—thanks to a two-hit night that raised his average to .219—may finally be breaking out of his season-opening funk.

Some really nice moments happened Wednesday.

But Bud Norris also happened again.

Taking a flier on Bud in the offseason made all the sense in the world, as he boasted recent success (15 wins and decent peripherals in 2014) and was working his way back after a bronchitis bout essentially torpedoed his 2015 season. A cheap deal for a guy with 200-inning potential is a great move when you’ve got a bounty of arms waiting in the wings.

Bud’s not holding up his end of the bargain unfortunately, and Wednesday was another example. After not getting into the fifth inning in his previous start, Norris was pulled in the second tonight after a single-wild pitch-walk-single-grand slam sequence that included a pissed-off Fredi Gonzalez taking matters into his own hands with a mound visit to try to straighten things out after a five-pitch walk to Jackie Bradley Jr.

Simply put, Bud’s not getting anyone out. He didn’t Wednesday. He hasn’t really in his last four starts now, failing to get out of the sixth in each. An innings eater who can’t eat up innings without allowing a half-dozen (or more) runs is just an ineffective pitcher. It’s probably time to acknowledge that this experiment failed, similar to how the Trevor Cahill experiment didn’t work out last season.

(Except for Cahill, who became a valuable bullpen arm down the stretch for the Cubs in 2015. Maybe a similar fate awaits Bud. So long as it’s with some other club, I don’t care.)

In relief of Norris, John Gant pitched well enough to throw his name into the ring as his replacement. The numbers weren’t mind-boggling (4.2 innings, two runs, three hits, four strikeouts), but given what we’ve seen from Bud over the last few outings, Gant could hardly be worse.

If only we could say the same about the offense, which at least managed to register a pulse late in this contest thanks to Freeman’s homer. The Braves second run came because Steven Wright’s knuckleball deserted him in the third, as he walked two and committed an error trying to get the force at second on a Freeman comebacker before plunking Pierzynski with the bags full.

The Braves never quite got a bead on Wright, as he danced his knuckler through seven innings. The only other true chance the Braves got against Tim Wakefield Jr. came when Erick Aybar struck out (of course) and reached on a passed ball. He advanced to second on a passed ball. And to third… on a passed ball. Rough inning for Ryan Hanigan, but a weak Daniel Castro groundout ended the ‘threat’.

The Braves would tack on a ninth-inning run thanks to a Nick Markakis double to make the beating seem slightly less severe.

Next: Joe West is a bad umpire

To quote Saturday Night Live-era Chevy Chase, “On a humorous note, there were no survivors.” The series ends Thursday from Fenway (7:10 p.m. ET).