The Braves finally won a game in California. The fact that that was cause for celebration tells you all you need to know about this season.
Three losses in San Diego. Four losses in Los Angeles. Three losses in San Francisco. The state of California has been the world’s largest House of Horrors built specifically for the Atlanta Braves, it seems. 10 games in California here in 2025 and they were all losses. California was where the calamity all started for the Braves and they still haven’t recovered from that nightmare trip to Southern California to begin the season.
This time, the Braves were traveling to Northern California for their final set of three games in California. This time, they’d be facing a foe that was much less formidable than the Dodgers, Padres or Giants were. With that being said, Atlanta’s record wasn’t too much better than that of Sacramento’s the A’s and as you can tell from their performances this season, they’re not in position to really be looking for “easy” wins. No matter who they face at this particular point in time, the Braves are going to be in for a serious fight and that’s what these Athletics had in store for Atlanta right out of the gate.
I appreciate all of you sickos who have regularly checked out these series recaps lately. It’s not a ton of fun reliving all these losses but it’s at least better to know that I’m not alone in documenting and witnessing the struggle. Let’s get into it, y’all.
Tuesday, July 8
Athletics 10, Braves 1
This game started with Didier Fuentes giving up a Little League Home Run to Lawrence Butler. It only got worse from there, as the most important information the Braves gleaned from this game is that Didier Fuentes did not need to be pitching in Major League Baseball for much longer. Fuentes will be back at some point but his development was going to be hindered if he continued to stay up getting shelled when he’s clearly not ready for the bigs.
Anyways, this was another absolutely dreadful loss for the Braves and at this point, the Braves had lost 11 straight regular season games in California and 13 straight overall if you count last season’s Wild Card Series in San Diego.
Wednesday, July 2
Braves 9, Athletics 2
Say what you want about the 2025 Braves but at least you can say that they didn’t go 0-for-California on the season. On their 12th attempt of the season, the Braves finally won a game in the Golden State. They did so in emphatic fashion as well, as the game started with Ronald Acuña Jr. returning after missing Tuesday’s game due to a back ailment and hitting a 433-foot moonshot to get the Braves going. Drake Baldwin added a massive three-run shot shortly afterwards to make it a four-run first-inning for the Braves.
Austin Riley added a two-run dinger of his own to push the Braves out to a 6-0 lead, Acuña homered for the second time in this game in the fourth inning and then Marcell Ozuna joined the home run derby by mashing a tater of his own in order to make it 8-1 Braves after six innings — with all five homers coming all at the expense of Mitch Spence.
Both teams eventually added on another run — old friend Gio Urshela cut the deficit back down to six runs with an RBI single in the sixth but Jurickson Profar’s RBI double pushed it back to the final differential of seven runs in a 9-2 win for the Braves.
Thursday, July 10
Athletics 5, Braves 4
At first, it sure seemed like this game was going to continue following the typical script for a Braves series loss lately. That’s to say that with the way this game started, it sure seemed like this was going to be a case of the Braves once again sandwiching one good game (i.e. a win) in between two absolutely horrid ones. Spencer Strider started for the Braves and things got off to an inauspicious start for him after he gave up a three-run dinger to Tyler Soderstrom in the first inning.
However, a funny thing happened in the fourth inning of this one: The Braves responded. Austin Riley got a two-out rally going with a double and then Sean Murphy cashed him in with a double of his own. That brought Jurickson Profar to the plate and he capped off the rally with a big two-run homer that tied the game up at three runs apiece. The two teams traded homers later on — Ozzie Albies hit a go-ahead shot out to right (his first homer since May 29, mind you) in order to push the Braves ahead but the game returned to a deadlock after Dylan Lee gave up a game-tying dinger (the first homer he’s given up since May 30, mind you) to Nick Kurtz so that the game ended up heading into extras tied at 4-4.
After escaping from the 10th inning with some solid defense on their way to pulling off an inning-ending double play, the stage was set for the Braves in the 11th. They had the top of the order up against a second inning of Jacob Sterner. Acuña struck out, Matt Olson flew out and then Austin Riley grounded out in order to leave the door open for the A’s once again. Aaron Bummer struck out Nick Kurtz but then gave up a single to Tyler Soderstrom that walked off the Braves and doomed them to yet another series loss and yet another one-run defeat. A fitting end to the California portion of their season, I’d say.
The Atlanta Braves are adrift right now. The A’s themselves are a last-place team by a fair margin in the AL West and it took everything the Braves had to hang with them in this series. Now granted, it’s big league baseball and there are no such things as cupcakes or “gimme” games (especially for this current braves team) but the fact that the Braves struggled mightily just to compete with an A’s team that clearly has their eyes placed squarely on the future should really be the clearest sign yet that this Atlanta team just does not have the horses to compete in 2025.
As far as the positives go, it was nice to see Acuña’s back ailment simply be one of those minor situations that only took one game from him instead of landing him back on the IL. The sad truth is that at this point, the main thing most Braves fans have to look forward to in the near-future is seeing him show out during the Home Run Derby and the All-Star Game, so having him healthy for that is imperative. It’s also important to note that Raisel Iglesias seems to be getting his groove back. He hasn’t given up an earned run since June 5 and during that stretch of 11 appearances and 9.2 innings pitched, he’s struck out 14 batters and only given up six hits and one walk. A lot of players on this team need to reclaim their mojo and maybe Iglesias is on his way to doing so.
For now, the Braves will now drag themselves into St. Louis to end this absolutely nightmare of a first half of a season looking to end things on a high note. The allure of the All-Star Break almost feels like seeing an oasis in the desert at this point and maybe we’ll see the Braves use that as a bit of a reset point as they get ready for what may (or may not) be a very interesting Trade Deadline coming up. Still, it’s hard to get up for that Cardinals series when this A’s series has made it abundantly clear that the Braves can’t really afford to take any game, opponent, or scenario past one game at a time. The struggle continues.