I’m not actually recapping this game
If discretion is the better part of valor, I’m not sure what the better part of this season is. Ronald Acuña Jr. being back? Drake Baldwin coming up as a result of an injury to Sean Murphy and raking? That stretch in April after the road trip where it seemed like the Braves were going to rebound? I don’t have much else.
I will, however, use said discretion to avoid recapping this game. You don’t need it. What you should know is that the Braves got out to a big lead (6-0, then 9-3), and they lost. To be clear: they lost. Scott Blewett and Raisel Iglesias combined to give up three homers and eight runs over the final two innings of play, and Marcell Ozuna hit into a game-ending double play in the ninth. There’s not much more that needs to be said, you don’t come to this point, six games under .500, the second-biggest disappointment in MLB, and blow a giant lead while getting a detailed recounting of your success and failures. You just get this, and a discussion of what comes next.
The Braves can probably do without Scott Blewett at this point. Maybe they could’ve used him to sop more innings, but they can try someone else in the innings-sopping role now. Whatever is going on with the team offensively is maybe over (as evinced by this game), but probably not, as evinced by whatever they’ve been doing all season. Iglesias had a terrible xFIP game (seven batters, one walk, zero strikeouts, one grounder) to go with his array of terrible homer-laden FIP games, and the Braves probably aren’t going to take away his job, but at this point, why not? Throw someone else in that role and see if they become more attractive to some subset of hidebound suitors with some saves on their statsheet — there’s not really anything else to lose.
The Braves probably aren’t going to pull a Thursday Night/Friday Morning Massacre, not on the eve of a West Coast swing, but again — what do they have to lose? They’ve already lost on the field this season in every conceivable way and now they’re adding once-a-season bullpen meltdowns before even digging out of their other self-imposed holes. At this point, they may as well use the rest of a season as a testing ground to get themselves in better position for the future, because when you lose like you did today to get swept by a team that was struggling as much as you were, it’s not clear what you’re going to do to turn it around.
Again, apologies if you really, really wanted a real recap, but not today. They don’t deserve it this time.
To their credit, they did finally show a sense of urgency, removing Grant Holmes after an incoming meltdown where he walked two to start the second time through the order and survived fine… until Blewett, Iglesias, and the defense did their thing. But if that isn’t enough to save the Braves even in this game, they’ve basically run out of rope short of a month-long winning streak.