The Braves Season To Forget Continues

As if losing 5 of their last 6 games wasn’t painful enough, the Braves have lost two key pitchers in their starting rotation in two days.

Yesterday it was Chris Sale getting moved to the 60 day IL and today it was announced Spencer Schwellenbach had a fracture in his elbow.

The Braves were already down Reynaldo Lopez and AJ Smith-Shawver in their rotation. The starting pitchers are no longer a strength of the team.

As I wrote in a recent article, Bryce Elder is barely good enough to be a 5th starting pitcher in a rotation and Didier Fuentes is just raw, young, and not ready.

What has been even more frustrating is that when the pitchers have had quality starts, the offense forgets how to swing the bat.

Grant Holmes pitched 6 innings yesterday, had 10 strikeouts, allowed zero runs - and the Braves still lost 4-0 to the Angels.

Unless Jurickson Profar can pitch when he comes back, I don’t think his suspension ending will matter this season.

I will never count the Braves out, because they seem to love starting seasons slow and falling back deep in the division.

This year feels different though. They are 7.5 games back in the wildcard and 11 back in the division with several teams ahead of them.

The NL is competitive this year. First and foremost though, the Braves need to start winning games - and fast.