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The Atlanta Braves Offense Has Suddenly Disappeared

By Jake Mastroianni

BALTIMORE, MD - AUGUST 21: Ozzie Albies #1 of the Atlanta Braves walks back to the dugout after striking out in third inning during a baseball game against the Baltimore Orioles at Oriole Park at Camden Yards on August 21, 2021 in Baltimore, Maryland. (Photo by Mitchell Layton/Getty Images)
BALTIMORE, MD - AUGUST 21: Ozzie Albies #1 of the Atlanta Braves walks back to the dugout after striking out in third inning during a baseball game against the Baltimore Orioles at Oriole Park at Camden Yards on August 21, 2021 in Baltimore, Maryland. (Photo by Mitchell Layton/Getty Images) /
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After a great stretch of scoring tons of runs, the Atlanta Braves offense has gone cold over the last several games leading into a difficult stretch. 

I mentioned on Monday that the Atlanta Braves were about to enter one of their toughest stretches of games left on the schedule.

And they’ll be doing so while the offense is in a bit of a dry spell.

During their 16-2 stretch they scored more than 5 runs in a game nine times. But in four of their last six games, they’ve only scored 3 runs or less.

You could see the cold streak coming over the weekend in Baltimore when they only managed to score 3, 5, and 3 runs against an Orioles pitching staff that ranks last in Major League Baseball.

It continues on Monday as the Braves only managed to score 1 run against Jordan Montgomery in his 5 innings and then nothing against their bullpen.

Braves — What happened to the offense?

The only real difference is Travis d’Arnaud has been on paternity leave. That’s certainly a big loss as he was providing great production since his return, but not enough for the offense to suddenly go ice cold.

Dansby Swanson, Jorge Soler, Freddie Freeman, Austin Riley, and Adam Duvall all have an OPS over .800 in the last week, so that’s not it either.

Ozzie Albies and Guillermo Heredia are the only regulars that have struggled hard the past week.

Fred always likes to point out that Ozzie is the one who makes things happen in this lineup, could Ozzie going cold really have that much of an effect on the offensive production?

They’re hitting just .226 with RISP over the last 7 days, which ranks 14th in MLB, but is significantly lower than their season average of .255 (ranks 15th in MLB).

Braves hitters are getting on base at a solid .327 clip this past week, and they have the 5th most home runs in the last seven days.

One thing I always worry about with this Braves team is they tend to rely too heavily on the home run at times and when those aren’t coming, they struggle to score.

But they’ve been getting the home runs, they’ve been getting on base — I really think you just have to chalk it up to a little bad luck.

They have a BABIP of just .245 the last week, far below their season average of .287, according to FanGraphs. And even that .287 BABIP is not great ranking 19th in baseball.

Next. 9-game Winning Streak Snapped. dark

Things will swing back in the Braves favor here soon. And with the way the starting pitching has looked, once the offense gets going we could see them go on another hot streak.

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