Offense, Bullpen Struggle In Braves Sweep

The Arizona Diamondbacks ended the first half of the season losing eight of 11 games, and Snakes fans hoped the All-Star break would be a good time to get healthy and reset. The club traveled to Atlanta to kick things off, but things didn’t go as planned as the Braves sweep the Snakes.

(Un)timely Hitting

There were two problems with the potent Diamondback offense against the Braves. The team didn’t hit particularly well, and they were especially unproductive with runners in scoring position. In three games, the Diamondbacks went 7-29 (.241 batting average) and left 25 left on base. In the case of Sunday, Jaime Garcia shut down the Snakes lineup, throwing seven innings of three-hit ball.

In the D-Backs’ last two series, Jake Lamb has gone 2/22 with seven strikeouts. Paul Goldschmidt has been one of the lone bright spots this series, hitting 5/13 and bringing in four runs.

Shaky Bullpen

In a season where the Diamondbacks had one of the best bullpens in baseball so far, they were plagued by late runs coming across to either lose the game and put it out of reach.

In Friday’s series opener, Archie Bradley, who has been pretty close to un-hittable the season, gave up four hits and two earned runs to lose the lead for the D-Backs in a 4-3 loss.

Saturday’s trio of Randall Delgado, Andrew Chafin and Jorge De La Rosa combined for 2 innings and allowed  eight hits, six runs and two strikeouts.

Familiar Face Does Damage

Dansby Swanson was the headliner in the trade that brought Shelby Miller to the desert, but outfielder Ender Inciarte also brought a reliable option at the top of the lineup and in the outfield to Atlanta. Inciarte was a constant reminder of that this series, hitting 7/13 with five runs scored and an RBI. The former D-Back outfielder and first-time All-Star is hitting .310 with 62 runs scored, seven home runs, 37 RBIs and 11 stolen bases.

The Diamondbacks now sit at 53-39 with a one-game lead on the Rockies in the wild card standings. The Chicago Cubs are next in line sitting at 5.5 games behind those two. 

Robbie Ray, Zack Greinke and Taijuan Walker are slated to take the hill when the Diamondbacks travel to Cincinnati for a three-game series.