Atlanta Braves offense continues to struggle with runners in scoring position
The Atlanta Braves offense has carried the team for most of the season, but they failed to come up with the big hit against the Reds.
It was a disappointing end to what could have been a very solid road trip for the Atlanta Braves.
After essentially giving away game one of the series, they fought back to even it up in game two with a chance to take the series Thursday night.
However, the offense continued to struggle with runners in scoring position.
It reached an all new level in the seventh inning on Thursday night when the Braves loaded the bases with no outs and then the next three batters struck out.
That essentially sealed the fate of the game for the Braves.
Hitting with RISP is something that usually evens itself out over the course of a season, but the Atlanta Braves have been flat awful at it for a good stretch now.
Even in the game they won against the Reds they were 0-for-11 with RISP.
As a team, they were a putrid 2-for-30 in the series with RISP. And both of those hits came in the games they lost.
To show you how quickly things can change in baseball, the Atlanta Braves were 13-for-34 with RISP in their series against the Cleveland Indians.
On the season, the Atlanta Braves rank 20th in the entire league in hitting with RISP with an average of .242.
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By comparison, last year they ranked fourth in the league in hitting with RISP with an average of .274.
The Boston Red Sox were first in this category a year ago at .289, just to show you how important this can be to a team’s success.
Part of hitting with RISP is just luck and timely hitting, but it’s something any team has to have to compete.
The only way you can survive without getting those timely hits, is if you hit a lot of home runs.
Right now that’s not happening for the Atlanta Braves either as they are 17th in the league with 31 home runs.
Again, this is something that will hopefully work itself out over time. The Braves are just going through a bad stretch.
The good thing is that the Atlanta Braves are getting on base. They’re still tops in the league with a .356 on-base percentage.
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But at some point you have to start bringing those runners around the bases. Let’s hope this isn’t something that lingers as the season continues.