ATLANTA -- It’s not like this was the first time the Braves experienced this kind of baffling result. A year ago, they squandered a Chris Sale gem in a loss to a White Sox team that lost 121 games. Now, they have wasted a dominant start in both losses against a Rockies team (including Sale’s start on April 30) on pace to lose more than 130 games this season.
Grant Holmes tallied the second-highest strikeout total in a nine-inning game in franchise history and the Braves finished one shy of the MLB record for most strikeouts over two consecutive games (minimum nine innings). But none of this mattered as a maddening offense was silenced and a suspect bullpen was exposed during the final three innings of a 10-1 loss to the Rockies on Sunday afternoon at Truist Park.
“I didn’t see that coming,” manager Brian Snitker said.
How could he have? First of all, his team was facing a Rockies club that has lost 57 of its first 71 games. Sound like a lot? The 2023 Braves lost 58 games all season. And Atlanta’s offense was facing Austin Gomber, who hadn’t completed more than four innings in either of the two rehab starts he had made this month while battling back from a Spring Training shoulder ailment.
But even if Gomber were to take a perfect game into the fourth inning and allow just two hits (both with two out in the fifth) over five scoreless innings, the Braves would be fine if Holmes tallied 15 strikeouts over 6 1/3 innings, right?
Wrong.
“It’s crazy,” Holmes said. “That’s baseball. You never know what’s going to happen.”
Holmes entered Sunday’s series finale having notched nine strikeouts in three of his past eight starts, including two of his past three. But this marked the first time in 135 starts at the professional level that Holmes recorded a double-digit strikeout total. The Rockies whiffed with 16 of 28 swings against his slider and with two of four swings against the curveball.
“I was able to locate the sliders and get some swing-and-miss on heaters in the zone, which I hadn’t been able to do,” Holmes said.
Holmes surrendered Ryan McMahon’s leadoff homer in the seventh and he committed a throwing error that scored the game’s first run in the third inning. Any hope of his outing being salvaged disappeared as Enyel De Los Santos endured a rare rough outing and José Ruiz might have thrown his final pitches for Atlanta in a three-run eighth.
Even without the late-inning bullpen meltdown, the Braves might have lost this one courtesy of another anemic offensive performance. They have scored no more than one run in 21.4 percent (15 of 70) of their games this season. They did so in 15.4 percent of their games last year and in just 7.4 percent of their games in 2023.
“It sucks to waste that start from Holmes, because we couldn’t get him any support,” first baseman Matt Olson said. “But taking two out of three, regardless of who it’s against, If we keep stacking that up, we’ll be in good shape.”
The Braves have won four of six and they have captured consecutive series victories since enduring a 17-game stretch that consisted of just three wins. Their inability to sweep the Rockies rekindled the doubt that existed exactly one week earlier when they had endured a seventh straight loss for the second time this season.
But while there are obvious concerns about the offense and bullpen, Atlanta can’t complain about a rotation that ranks fourth among NL teams with a 3.20 ERA since the start of May. This group could get even better if Spencer Strider’s 13-strikeout gem against the Rockies on Saturday was a sign he is ready to re-establish himself among the game’s elite.
Strider’s 16 strikeouts against the Rockies on Sept. 1, 2022, stand as the most recorded by a Braves pitcher in a game consisting of nine innings or fewer since 1901. Holmes now ranks second on this list, tied with John Smoltz, who tallied 15 strikeouts twice, once on May 24, 1992 against Montreal and again in a matchup against Pedro Martinez on April 10, 2005.
A sold-out crowd cheered each of Holmes’ strikeouts, but less than an hour later they were mockingly cheering when utility man Luke Williams threw a strike during a scoreless ninth.
Would it have been crazy to see a position player tally the record-tying or record-setting strikeout? Not any more crazy than losing by nine runs when your starting pitcher records 15 strikeouts against a team that has just 14 wins in the middle of June.