Atlanta Braves hot and not update for May 3, 2019

The Atlanta Braves week frustrated fans with wild swings in performance. Some hot players cooled off sharply, and others started to warm up.

Last week I caught us up on the team’s offense so far this season. This update looks back over the past week to see what changed. The numbers cover the period 4-29 through 5-2.

The Atlanta Braves entered last Friday with a 12-12 record, in third place and one game back of the Phillies. Since then they’ve lost four of the seven games played, finishing the week 15-16.

As of this morning, they’re back to .500 at 16-16… now tied with the Mets for second place, but now 2.5 games in back of the Phillies.

The biggest issue facing the team is oddly the area where they were supposed to be strongest; pitching.  They were saved from a week of disaster by a pair of young starters and two relievers no one expected to be critical to the team’s success.

Atlanta Braves starting pitching: red hot and ice-cold

Mike Foltynewicz showed signs he’s still working back to game ready in both of his outings. Hanging sliders in Thursday’s game and some defensive mistakes behind him put the Braves in a very deep hole.  A lack of bullpen support made that hole deeper, but the offense wasn’t up to the task, either.

Julio Teheran once again looked good for four innings before his home run demon made an appearance and escorted three baseballs out of the building.

Kevin Gausman struggled as well, but Max Fried and Mike Soroka prevented a complete collapse of the rotation.  That latter pair clearly earns top honors on the Hot List.