Three Cuts: Nats jump on Miller early, continue dominance of Braves
ATLANTA -- The Atlanta Braves could not keep the winning ways alive on their return to Turner Field.
Atlanta swept the Mets to finish off its last homestand, but dropped five of its next six games on the road. The momentum of winning their last game on the road wasn't enough, however, to carry through for a win Tuesday.
The loss pushed the Braves to 36-41 on the season, seven games behind the NL East-leading Nationals, who are now 9-1 versus Atlanta in 2015.
Here are three observations from the action:
Before late-arriving fans got to their seats, the Braves were in a hole.
A leadoff single to Denard Span was followed by a one-run double from Danny Espinosa. Two batters into the game Washington was up 1-0. Three hitters later Wilson Ramos singled in Espinosa which was followed by Clint Robinson's two-run blast, a shot that gave the Nationals a 4-0 lead.
"They got him early," said Braves manager Fredi Gonzalez. "They squared up some balls early in the game, then he just got himself in some trouble the rest of the game. It just wasn't a normal Shelby Miller outing. Shoot, he's allowed to have that every once in a while after how good he's been. Now we go on to his next start."
Miller said nothing bad was going on with his mechanics, he just missed with one offering, and threw the wrong pitch to another batter.
"The one I threw to Span was away, right where I wanted to throw it," said Miller. "He just got a hit on it. Espinosa's was just trying to go inside, [but it was] still down and away. He got a hit on that. And then I just kind of hung the curve ball.
"If I could take it back I wouldn't have thrown Robinson a curve ball. I think that did him a huge favor with a hanging curve ball inside."
A good pitch that was outside instead of in, and a curve that probably should have been a sinker were Miller's only two mistakes. They cost him four runs.
Prior to Tuesday's four-run first inning, Miller had allowed only one run in the first innings of his previous 15 starts combined. Opponents were 3 for 46 (.065) in the first inning versus Miller.
After the disastrous first, Miller struck out eight batters over the next four frames. Add in two strikeouts to exit the first and Miller fanned 10 Nationals hitters. Starting pitchers that punch out 10 batters don't typically get ran from games in the fifth inning, or put up losses. But with Miller's pitch count at 103, Gonzalez removed him from the game.
The 10 strikeouts on the night should go a long way toward convincing anyone paying attention that Miller's outing was an anomaly.
"I'm upset that we lost, but those innings are going to happen," said Miller. "At the end of the day, if you're making your pitches and they're getting hits ... it happens. You tip your cap to that offense for those kinds of games."
With the major-league debuts of Jake Brigham and Ryan Kelly (more on them later), the Braves have now used 46 different players during the 2015 season -- 25 have been pitchers.
The revolving door attached to the pitching staff was by design, said Gonzalez prior to the game.
"The bodies with the bullpen, or the rotation, we talked about this in the winter time," said Gonzalez. "We sat down -- and obviously we can do it with some guys and we can't with others because of options and clearing waivers and things like that -- and we knew that we we're trying to line up the Triple-A pitching staff as part of our major-league pitching staff.
"For example, we did it a couple of times where Cody Martin went four innings and instead of putting him in the bullpen for three days because we can't use him, let's bring a new body up, send him [Martin] down and have a fresh arm. It was kind of the plan all along. I think we've done more for different reasons."
Gonzalez listed suspensions to Arodys Vizcaino and Andrew McKirahan as immediate reasons the bullpen has been unstable. Don't forget the inability at times of the starting rotation to pitch deep into games early on as another, and then the implosion of the bullpen shortly thereafter.
The Braves have needed to constantly shuffle pitchers from Turner Field to Gwinnett just to survive. Two of those arms threw in their first big-league games versus the Nationals.
Brigham tossed three innings of relief, and his debut went swimmingly.
He allowed just one hit and struck out four batters. He walked one and did not allow a run to cross the plate. More impressive than his first outing in the bigs was the fact that he made it to the show at all after such a long and twisting path to the majors.
After being drafted in the sixth round of the 2006 draft by the Texas Rangers, Brigham played nine seasons in the minors. He's touched every level from Rookie ball to all three Single-A levels and then he played four seasons at Double-A and three in Triple-A.
In his nine seasons, Brigham pitched in 203 games and started 149. He posted a 4.27 ERA over a combined 894 2/3 minor-league innings. None matched the feeling of entering the game on Tuesday.
"When they said 'You're in,' you can't take back those words," Brigham said. "Walking down those stairs about to round the fence to go on the field, I just took a second [to myself]. I couldn't believe it."
Brigham kept his hands in his pockets during his interview after the game because his hands were still shaking from the adrenaline rush.
Kelly pitched an inning of relief in what was also his big-league debut after nine seasons in the minors. He gave up a run on two hits and struck out a batter. He'd thrown 462 2/3 innings in 276 minor-league appearances before being called up to Atlanta on June 28.
First baseman Freddie Freeman might not be back in the Braves lineup on Friday, the first day he's eligible to return to action.
Freeman was placed on the disabled list on June 23 (retroactive back to June 18) with a right wrist contusion and has endured a platelet-rich-plasma (PRP) injection as well as other forms of rehabilitation to get the injury to feel right.
According to Gonzalez, Freeman's wrist hasn't reacted as well as expected.
"He's just not improving and they're trying a little different treatments on him," said the Braves skipper. "Hopefully one of those treatments work.
"We were hoping we could get him there shortly after the 15-day DL, but I think it's going to be a little longer than that. I'm not quite sure how much longer than that. We had our fingers crossed and we were optimistic to get him there after, but I think it's going to be little longer than that."
Gonzalez wouldn't venture a guess as to how much longer the Braves' All-Star first baseman would be out of action. In a perfect world, he'd be back on the field on July 3. But it could be closer to the All-Star break.
Major League Baseball observes its All-Star break from July 13-16 this year. If Freeman was unable to return prior to July 17, he'd miss 23 games and almost a whole month on the calendar. But Gonzalez said the team wasn't sure how long, and even mentioned four, maybe five days of extra time, which would get Freeman back at first base for the Colorado series (four games prior to the break).
Neither Freeman nor the Braves know exactly when he'll return. That's not only irksome to the team, but to Freeman as well.
"He is frustrated," Gonzalez said of Freeman. "He wants to get on the field, but he understands this is going to take a little time. He's been great, visiting with the doctor and getting his treatment. He hasn't missed one. He's pushing all he can to try to get himself back on the field."
