PITTSBURGH — Though it’s a maddening offensive malaise that’s holding them back, the Atlanta Braves nonetheless eagerly await Spencer Strider’s return (again) from the injured list.
A decision looms on whether the power-armed pitcher will be activated this week or sent on a brief rehab assignment by the Braves, who remain below .500 after dropping two of three games during an embarrassing weekend series at Pittsburgh capped by Sunday’s 4-3 loss.
Sean Murphy had a pinch-hit three-run double in the eighth inning Sunday to erase Pittsburgh’s three-run lead, but the Pirates scraped together a run in the ninth against struggling closer Raisel Iglesias.
Iglesias didn’t give up hard contact this time — only one ball hit against him was over 74 mph, and a cue-shot single was 60.4 mph — but still took his third loss after giving up two singles, an intentional walk and a bases-loaded fielder’s choice to Joey Bart, a Georgia Tech alum who had six hits and three RBIs in the last two games of the series.
Strider won’t help the offense, but could fortify a Braves pitching staff being tested regularly by the slim-to-none margin for error that the offense provides.
Joey Bart’s infield single off Raisel Iglesias in the ninth gives Pirates a 4-3 walk-off win against the #Braves and a 2-1 series win. Atlanta is 0-5 in games when it could’ve reached .500, including a loss at Colorado and two here in Pittsburgh.
— David O’Brien (@DOBrienATL) May 11, 2025
Among considerations regarding Strider’s activation: With the Braves 10 days into a stretch of 17 games in 17 days, and only one day off in the next 13 days, they will be cognizant of their bullpen situation and not overwork relievers. They want to be sure that Strider, who last pitched April 16, can safely go deep in a game.
He returned from a year-long rehab for elbow surgery to make an April 16 start at Toronto, and worked five innings (97 pitches) in that game. But he strained his right hamstring five days later while playing catch the day before what would’ve been his next start.
Strider maintained arm strength during this IL stint by first throwing from a knee to avoid stressing the hamstring, then moving upright and, in the past week, throwing two bullpen sessions off the mound, the latest in Pittsburgh on Saturday.
“I feel good to go,” Strider said Sunday morning. “But admittedly, I haven’t pitched in three weeks, so I won’t be shocked if they don’t feel comfortable about running me out there. I’ve made my availability known, and beyond that, it’s up to them.”
Strider isn’t among the Braves’ listed starters for a four-game series against the Washington Nationals that starts Monday. But the Braves could alter that or have him start Friday’s series opener at Boston, to give Chris Sale an extra day of rest after Sale pitched 5 2/3 innings Sunday and was charged with eight hits and three runs (two earned).
Sale has a 2.20 ERA in his past five starts, after going 0-2 with a 6.63 ERA in his first four.
The 36-year-old lefty had eight strikeouts Sunday to tie Jack Morris for 42nd on the all-time list with 2,478, but Sale got no decision after leaving with a 3-0 deficit on a day when he didn’t get much help from his defense — the first run scored on a passed ball charged to rookie Drake Baldwin — and even less from Atlanta’s offense.
The elusive .500 (it’s getting ridiculous)
With losses Friday and Sunday at Pittsburgh in games that would have pushed their record to break-even, the Braves fell to 0-5 in their chances to improve to .500.
That 0-5 goes from bad to dreadful, considering those losses included one against the historically awful Colorado Rockies (on April 30) and two this series against the Pirates.
After the Braves won four of their past five games at home, they arrived in Pittsburgh with an 18-19 record. They lost a series to a reeling Pirates team on a seven-game losing skid. Pittsburgh had dropped 10 of 11 before firing manager Derek Shelton on Thursday.
“Looking at the positive, we’re 4-3 in our last seven games, and won three out of four against a really good (Reds) club,” Braves manager Brian Snitker said. “We just didn’t hit in this series. There wasn’t any room for error. Every little thing that we didn’t do, or we shot ourselves in the foot.”
Continuing their penchant for playing down to opposing pitchers, the Braves fell on their faces Friday against lefty Brady Falter, who entered with a 5.06 ERA and pitched six scoreless innings of two-hit ball. On Sunday, it was Carmen Mlodzinski, who entered with a 1-3 record and 6.16 ERA and proceeded to pitch 5 2/3 scoreless innings of four-hit ball, lowering his ERA to 5.20.
The Braves return to Atlanta at 19-21, still searching for answers as to how they can get their offense operating with any consistency, other than consistently bad.
They are tied for 21st in the majors in batting average (.237) and rank in the bottom half of the majors in on-base percentage (.310), slugging percentage (.380) and OPS (.690), just ahead of the Marlins (.689) and Nationals (.688) in the latter category.
“I feel like deja vu here, speaking about that — a year ago today, I was probably talking to you about the same thing,” Snitker said. “But yeah, these guys — and I’ve told them — they have baseball cards, they’re good players, they’re good hitters, they’re capable. And it’s just one of those things that we just gotta keep grinding.
“So I have every confidence in the world that at some point we’re gonna get this thing rolling. We’re gonna hit. We’re not gonna not hit for the next five months or four months.”
In the eighth, they awaken
As they have been wont to do, the Braves didn’t get their offense going Sunday until the eighth inning. Since the Braves’ first win of the season on April 4, they have scored the fifth-most runs (51) in the majors in the eighth inning and later. In the first six innings, the Braves have scored the seventh-fewest runs (94), and they’ve scored just 12 runs in the seventh inning, third-fewest in the majors.
“We’ve got to hit (in innings) one through seven,” Snitker said. “I mean, we’ve just got to start scoring more runs. We can’t wait until the eighth inning and then potentially blow up our bullpen again.”
Weighing options with Strider, rotation
The Braves could decide to have Strider make a minor-league rehab start or at least face hitters in a simulated game to push back his return until next weekend or the following week. Team officials will discuss the situation in the next few days.
AJ Smith-Shawver and Bryce Elder have pitched well in recent starts. Smith-Shawver was so impressive in his past three in a row at the major-league level that the Braves would presumably not want to option him to Triple A again. They don’t have any other optionable starters.
Assuming the Braves aren’t going to go with six starters on the big-league roster for any extended period, one potential move would be shifting Grant Holmes to the bullpen, where he pitched well for part of last season. But such a move would require the Braves to bump a reliever, and their only two with options are Daysbel Hernández and lefty Dylan Lee, both of whom seem too important to send to the minors for any period.
Unless another reliever comes up, ahem, injured — let’s not act as though that doesn’t happen frequently across the majors — and goes on the 15-day IL, the Braves might be forced to DFA one of their option-less relievers. But all have pitched well, and none would likely pass through waivers without being claimed by another team.
Meanwhile, Strider said he’s ready to pitch, and the Braves obviously will welcome with open arms the 2023 MLB wins and strikeouts leader once the decision is made to pencil him back in the rotation.
“That conversation is not in my hands,” Strider said. “I feel good about where I’m at. … Obviously we’re in the middle of 17 games straight, so I’m sure that that’s gonna play a factor in what pitch count they feel is safe and that kind of stuff, in terms of where the bullpen’s at and where the pitching staff is. I feel good about my chances to give us a chance to win if I’m out there, but (it’s) not up to me.”
Extra-innings mojo
As dreadful as the Braves’ record has been in games to potentially reach .500, they’ve been wholly impressive in extra-inning games, winning all five this season, including three in the past week.
One unlikely contributor to that success is Scott Blewett, a well-traveled reliever who pitched the 10th and 11th innings in Thursday’s win against the Reds and did the same thing Saturday against the Pirates, allowing no runs in either appearance despite the “ghost runner” rule that places a runner at second base to begin each extra inning.
“To strand two guys in two different innings for the second time, it shows a lot about him,” Braves first baseman Matt Olson said after Saturday’s 3-2 win in 11 innings. “I know he prepares a lot, and he’s got good stuff. But just big stones on the mound in a big moment, getting the job done.”
(Photo of Chris Sale: Justin K. Aller / Getty Images)