And to be clear: Sale is not at fault here. The point is that the Braves’ lineup has left the pitchers needing perfection and perfection only.
The Braves on Tuesday lost to the Dodgers 3-1. They are 0-6 — the only winless team in the majors. The Dodgers, on the other hand, are 7-0, which ties the best record for a defending World Series champion in history, with the 1933 Yankees.
ExploreRead more about the Braves
This is the Braves’ longest season-opening losing streak since they lost nine in a row to begin the 2016 campaign. The Braves could very well be 0-7 when they travel home, considering that Wednesday’s pitching matchup — Bryce Elder versus Blake Snell — doesn’t favor them.
“We’ve definitely been tried,” Sale said. “It’s just been tough. We really just haven’t played really well as a whole and just haven’t clicked. It’s obviously bad, but the good news is, you look around this room and see who’s in here, we know there’s only a matter of time, right? And luckily, at this point in the season, we have time. We don’t want to lean on that too hard, you want to get it going eventually, but we have confidence in this clubhouse and who we have, and what we can do.”
The Braves still have 156 games remaining. In that clubhouse, to Sale’s point, they have Matt Olson and Austin Riley, Michael Harris II and Ozzie Albies. Eventually, they will have Ronald Acuña Jr. and Spencer Strider.
“There’s confidence in this room, still,” Sale said. “I know it’s coming from inspiring places right now just sitting where we’re at. But we haven’t played a game at home yet. We’re one lineup through, one rotation through. It’s a long season. You don’t want to hang your hat on that quote, but at the end of the day, it is. … We have time. It’s just we’d rather get it going sooner rather than later.”
The 2011 Rays, 1995 Reds and 1974 Pirates all made the postseason after opening the year 0-6. Can the Braves join them? Time will tell, but that is looking too far ahead. The Braves have issues right now.
On Tuesday, the Braves scored a run on an error in the second inning to take their first lead since opening day. They had gone 39 innings without leading a game. This run, created by shortstop Mookie Betts’ throwing error, was all the Braves mustered.
And now, they are 1-for-34 with runners in scoring position. The one hit came Friday against the Padres. Saturday, Sunday, Monday and Tuesday, all gone without a hit with a man in scoring position.
“I can’t explain it,” Braves manager Brian Snitker said. “I’m sure they’re pressing. That’s human nature is to press when everybody wants to be the guy. You can look out there, they’re not taking it on defense, that’s for sure. They’re playing (great in the field), and that’s why they’re really good players, because they can hit and they play good defense.
“Every year I’ve ever been in this thing — it’s happened to us every year I’ve been here — when you get in ruts like that, everybody wants to be the guy, and they all try too hard. The best thing that can happen to them is to knock a run in and relax it, and eventually it will. It hasn’t yet, but eventually it will.”
This challenge comes with added wrinkles. The Braves are without Jurickson Profar, who’s serving an 80-game suspension after testing positive for a performance-enhancing substance. Next week, they’ll send right-hander Reynaldo López for an arthroscopic procedure to determine the extent of damage in his shoulder — which will provide a clearer timeline of when he can come off the injured list. It seems like the Braves will be without López for at least a month or two.
Sale had navigated a talented Dodgers lineup for five innings. In the sixth, Shohei Ohtani singled, Betts homered and Tommy Edman singled. Snitker went out to pull Sale, who exited with the Braves in a one-run hole.
“They got the big hit,” Snitker said. “Shoot, I felt good. If we scored three or four runs, then he comes out of there with the lead. That’s the biggest thing: You can’t make any mistakes when we’re not scoring runs. He threw the ball extremely well today. He pitched well enough to win. It’s hard. It’s hard sledding when you can’t give up anything.”
Sale, known for being hard on himself, put it like this:
“Five innings, three runs ain’t gonna get you too much a whole lot. I would like to be able to do better than that.”
(The third run, charged to him, was caused partially by catcher Drake Baldwin’s throwing error on a stolen base attempt.)
And at this moment, three runs might be too many for this offense. In fairness to the Braves, the Padres and Dodgers boast difficult pitching staffs. The Braves will face easier arms — beginning with the Marlins this weekend at Truist Park.
But the Braves also have had a lot of poor at-bats. For the season’s first two games, their approach looked good. It hasn’t since — especially with men in scoring position.
“Sometimes when you go up there and you’re trying to get a good at-bat and trying to put the ball in play and try to drive him in, maybe once in a while you can get a little pressure on it and try to do more than you can, and that’s why the team isn’t going well,” Marcell Ozuna said.
What would you have said if someone had told you before the season that the Braves would be the only winless team in the majors after six games?
Or that they’d go 29 innings without scoring a run during the first week?
Or that they would have one hit with runners in scoring position through six games?
It’s unfathomable.
“It’s a hard start,” Ozuna said. “We’ve been grinding. We go out there trying to get a good at-bat. It’s been a hard start, but I got the feeling that as soon as we get home, we’re gonna be fine, for sure.”
“We’ve pitched and played defense well enough to win,” Snitker said. “The only thing we haven’t done is score enough runs to win. It’s pretty much as simple as that.”
This was the case a season ago. This is a new year. But Braves fans might feel particularly sensitive to hearing similar comments as the ones that came out of the clubhouse last season, when the Braves hoped their offense would arrive but it never did.
They’re set up better this season — at least for now. They’ll get catcher Sean Murphy back within the next week. They’ll add Acuña at some point in May. On the pitching side, they’ll get Strider back later this month and perhaps Joe Jiménez later in the season.
But there are questions. Why is this offense, talented and dangerous on paper, so futile once again? Do the Braves have the depth to cover for López’s absence if it’s an extended one? Is the bullpen reliable enough to win close games when the offense does score runs? How will the Braves replace Profar, now and if they make the postseason (for which he’d be ineligible)?
No doubt, the Braves had a difficult draw beginning the season with this West Coast trip. But they’ve been pretty uncompetitive in these games. Things are bad right now.
Asked if he’s confident his clubhouse has the leadership in it to turn this around, Snitker immediately said yes.
“Very confident,” he said. “Like I say, I hope I’m looking back and we’re talking about this in two months and how great it was to win the division when you have a start like this.”
