3 Braves takeaways: Scoreless and swept, AJ Smith-Shawver's mixed bag, and bullpen Ls

New York Times

31-03-2025

SAN DIEGO — It was so bad that Atlanta Braves manager Brian Snitker didn't attempt to put a positive spin on it Sunday night after his team lost 5-0 to the San Diego Padres, running their scoreless streak to 22 innings. The last time the Braves were swept in a four-game series was when the Colorado Rockies did it to them in 2018. And not since 1980, 45 years ago against the Cincinnati Reds, have they been swept in a season-opening four-game series.
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'It's bad — 0-4 is pretty bad,' said Snitker, whose team has the fewest runs (seven) among all MLB teams that have played at least four games. 'We didn't get it done. I mean, we didn't hit enough. Had a couple of bullpen lapses, (but) overall the bullpen, with the exception of two innings, did really good. We just got to figure out a way to get something going offensively, that's for sure.
'With any offense at all, the worst we do is split the series.'
The worst season-opening start by a Braves team that went on to make the postseason was 0-4, done in 2012 and again in 2021, when Atlanta won the World Series. To avoid an 0-5 start, they'll need to beat the 5-0 Los Angeles Dodgers on Monday in the opener of a three-game series at Dodger Stadium. Grant Holmes will get the start for Atlanta against Tyler Glasnow.
The Braves are a majors-worst 1-for-22 with runners in scoring position after four games. Their only runner to reach second base Sunday, Marcell Ozuna, did so in the eighth inning with a single off reliever Jason Adam. Ozuna was thrown out moments after he got to second, though, when the Padres threw behind him and caught him straying from the bag to complete a double play.
That was the second time the Braves hit into a double play in the only two innings in which they had a runner reach base. Orlando Arcia had their only hit, a leadoff single in the third against Nick Pivetta, who induced an inning-ending double-play grounder from Chadwick Tromp two batters later.
In his Padres debut, Pivetta recorded 21 outs in 21 batters faced over seven innings, allowing only the Arcia hit. Reliever Jeremiah Estrada struck out all three Braves in the ninth to make it 27 outs in 27 batters faced for Padres pitchers.
'Obviously, not the outcome we want,' Braves center fielder Michael Harris II said. 'But I guess heading into the Dodgers, we've got to refresh and forget that happened. We've still got 158 (games) left. So, just move on to the next opponent and keep your head high.
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'It's too early in the season to kind of keep your head low and think about what just happened. So, it's only up from here.'
The Braves are 29th in the majors in batting average (.148) and OPS (.484), ahead of only the New York Mets (.136/.476) in each. Atlanta is 28th in slugging percentage (.238).
'Just kind of give credit to the guys we're facing,' Snitker said. '(Pivetta) did a good job again today against us. I don't know — we've just got to keep fighting it. It just gets so magnified in the beginning. You go through these stretches all the time, and if you only have one like this, you're lucky.
'Even in the years when we won over 100 games, you have more than one rough spot. And it's no fun going through it now, June, July or whatever. It's just that it gets magnified in the beginning.'
Many who saw AJ Smith-Shawver's Grapefruit League start against the Minnesota Twins on March 15, and plenty who just read or heard about it, were excited about his progress and wondered if the young pitcher had turned the corner in his career. He had eight strikeouts with no walks in four innings that day.
Maybe he has turned the corner. But Smith-Shawver's first start of the season Sunday was a reminder that he remains a work in progress, as Snitker has said plenty of times, including a couple of hours before Sunday's game.
Against the Padres, Smith-Shawver threw 77 pitches (42 strikes) in four innings and allowed six hits, two runs and three walks with four strikeouts.
The first run came after Fernando Tatis Jr. led off the opening inning with a checked-swing double up the first-base line on a fastball up and in. He scored on Manny Machado's one-out double on a 1-0 fastball over the middle of the plate.
In the third inning, Smith-Shawver walked Jake Cronenworth with two out. Xander Bogaerts drove him in with a double on the next pitch, a hanging slider.
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The damage could've been worse: After Machado's RBI double in the first inning, Jackson Merrill lined a ball to right field that Jarred Kelenic caught in full stride near the corner. The Padres loaded the bases in the second inning on a single and consecutive two-out walks before Luis Arraez lined out to Harris, who made a running catch coming in.
'Two-out walks suck,' Smith-Shawver said. 'That's a pitcher's nightmare. Not ideal, by any means.'
Snitker said Smith-Shawver got away from using his fastball during the second inning, contributing to his inflated pitch count early. He did, however, like that Smith-Shawver was able to keep things from spiraling against him, as they have in similar situations.
'I was decently happy with the damage control,' Smith-Shawver said, 'but obviously, you want to be ahead in counts and putting people away, not having to be put in those positions. I think I definitely wasted some pitches today and could have been better on a few. I need to go look back at the tape and just see what adjustments I can make to get ahead and just put guys away a little bit faster without having to go so deep in the pitch count, and hopefully give the guys a few more innings.'
Smith Shawver, 22, had a 3.94 ERA in five spring games with 20 strikeouts and five walks in 16 innings — the same number of strikeouts and walks as teammate and reigning Cy Young Award winner Chris Sale had in 19 1/3 innings in his five Grapefruit League starts.
The Braves trailed after the first inning Sunday, the first time in the series that one of their relievers didn't take the loss. In each of the first three games, they led or were tied in the seventh inning or later and lost.
During the 2023 and 2024 seasons, the Braves had a 192-40 record in games in which they were tied or led in the seventh inning or later, the third-best winning percentage in the majors in that span behind the Dodgers and Baltimore Orioles.
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After recording only 27 bullpen losses in 2024, the fourth fewest in the National League, Braves relievers had three Ls in this opening series. But one of the only bright spots Sunday was the Braves' debut of veteran lefty José Suarez, who recorded six outs in the first six batters he faced in the fifth and sixth innings before giving up a run in the seventh on a leadoff walk to Tatis and a two-out double by Merrill.
The Braves got Suarez from the Los Angeles Angels in the March 23 trade for Ian Anderson.
(Top photo of Marcell Ozuna: Denis Poroy / Imagn Images)