Atlanta Braves Must “Embrace The Suck” as Slide Continues

DENVER — After hitting triple digits earlier in the week, the temperatures felt more like autumn in the Rockies on Friday night at Coors Field.

The week’s falling temperatures served as an analogy for the Atlanta Braves against the host Colorado Rockies, with Marcell Ozuna’s first-inning home run boosting the visitors early but still eventually unable to shake the chill of its recent losing ways. Colorado rallied late for a 6-5 decision to drop Atlanta to 2-6 in August and 7-13 since the All-Star break.

Atlanta reliever A.J. Minter gave up back-to-back doubles to open the seventh, with Ryan McMahon’s RBI two-bagger eventually proving to be the difference as the Rockies snapped a nine-game losing streak to Atlanta.

The win marked the first time that Colorado had defeated Atlanta in Denver since September 4, 2021. While Colorado celebrated snapping one streak, the Braves were left frustrated by their own streak of six consecutive losses.

“You play for each other, even when you feel like everyone’s against you,” Minter said about Atlanta’s ability to rebound and get back into the postseason picture. “I’m sure people are counting us out. I’ve been a part of pretty special teams and you have to embrace the suck just as much as when everything’s going good.

“I know one thing is that we’re still have a lot of baseball left. I know we’re going to come out of this. Winning is contagious and losing can be contagious as well, but I know we’re going to get out of this.”

Atlanta is now 60-55 on the season and has 47 more games left to play to determine its postseason fate. Each one seems to carry a little more weight with the team scuffling. Seeing what’s left on the calendar has Minter and many others in the Braves clubhouse believing there is time to turn the season around.

“You go back to these leaders in this clubhouse and just the experiences that we’ve gone through together,” Minter said.

“The ups and downs are really just the ups and downs. We know it’s still in there. We’re going to stay strong. We’re going to find it eventually. But, at the same time, we got to get this ball rolling today. We can’t sit around and feel sorry. There’s still time and we’re still right where we need to be.”

Before Friday’s series opener, and the start of a three-city, 10-game road trip, Braves manager Brian Snitker was open and honest about his team’s emotions and opportunities after its recent slide.

“Well, they don’t like it. I don’t like it,” Snitker said of the recent losing streak. “I mean, there’s been some things that haven’t gone the way we wanted. And you know what? They just handle it. Looking at them, I told them all the other day, I went out to mound, to make a pitching change and I said, ‘You know what, fellas? We choose to do this. This is our own volition, the why we’re here.

“They’re fine. I mean, I said I looked at a game like yesterday (Thursday’s 16-7 loss at home to the Milwaukee Brewers), that thing got out of hand and everything, but I see our guys diving all over the place and making plays and not taking pitches off. That’s really encouraging to me.”

Another loss will do little to encourage a Braves team that is trying to regain its footing as its current losing streak continued. And, perhaps adding even more salt to the proverbial wound on Friday was the way that Atlanta’s offense was kept off-balance by Rockies starter Tanner Gordon.

The right-hander was part of a trade deadline deal last season that sent him and current Rockies reliever Victor Vodnik from the Braves to Colorado in exchange for relief pitcher Pierce Johnson.

Gordon, who talked about the trade and its impact on a recent Clubhouse Chatter podcast episode, scattered six hits over 5.0 innings, striking out seven without issuing a walk.

Vodnik, meanwhile, earned his seventh save of the season by working around Jarred Kelenic’s leadoff single to work a scoreless ninth.

“It’s a performance-based job and when we as a team can’t come out here and produce and win games the last five or so, it’s frustrating,” Kelenic said. “But I do know everybody in here understands what we can and can’t control and the only thing we have control of is flushing this one and showing up tomorrow and keeping going.

“The game’s not going to stop. We just have to keep going.”

That’s also the message from Snitker as he hopes Max Fried taking the mound on Saturday will provide a boost for the loss-weary (and bullpen-depleted) Braves. The 5.0 innings thrown by starter Grant Holmes on Friday marked the first time in five games an Atlanta starter had reached that mark.

“You just got to keep showing up every day and fighting the fight, and hopefully it gets turned for you,” Snitker said.