Final look at the Atlanta Braves series win over the Washington Nationals

The Braves looked good against the soon to be bottom-dwelling Nationals, but there are still some concerns

A cursory glance at the Braves’ opening series of the season would lead one to believe that they were dominant and just gave away game three with a poor pitching start from the young Jared Shushter. A deeper dive casts a shadow that one can only hope the Braves can correct heading into St. Louis. Let’s do a bad news/ good news review on the series.

Bad News

Max Fried’s injury. The Braves’ ace looked, well, Fried-like in the first three innings of the season. That situation took a turn for the worse as the fourth inning started and Fried sprinted over to first, to cover a grounder hit to first baseman Matt Olson, and came up with a gimpy left hamstring for his efforts. Grimacing the entire time and unable to push off that leg for more than one warm-up pitch, Fried exited the game as Braves Country held its breath.

Max Fried will exit today's game with an apparent leg injury. pic.twitter.com/s52Nr2BV0r

— Bally Sports: Braves (@BravesOnBally) March 30, 2023

Good News

Fried’s hamstring will earn him a stint on the disabled list for a bit. However, seeing as it isn’t an arm-related injury, we should see Fried back to his normal, dominant self before the Braves really start to miss him. The last time Fried had a similar issue, in April of 2021, he missed only three weeks and was almost untouchable upon returning. 

After returning, Fried started 25 games in the rest of the 2021 season and went 14-6 with a 2.44 ERA, wth the Braves winning 17 of those 25 games.  

Bad News

The Braves stranded over forty runners left on base in three games. Sean Murphy and Eddie Rosario didn’t record a hit for the series. Ozuna only managed one hit, albeit a dinger. While Olsen did park two yard balls, he and the rest of the team struck out twenty-one times against a decimated Nationals pitching staff. When they ran into somewhat decent pitching in the series final, the vaunted offense could only muster one run on four hits. That will not get it done against the better staffs that are coming along soon.

Good News

Prior to the final game, the Braves did crush four homers with fourteen runs in two games. It is hard to complain about that. Scoring a touchdown each in back to back games is very acceptable against any major league team. It should be noted again that this was against one of the worst starting pitching staffs in the National League. The Braves should be fine in the of department with the firepower they line up daily. There are some lingering concerns over Ozuna’s production numbers, but that should come up with so much batter protection around him. The Braves’ offense should be just dandy as the weather warms.

Bad News

Call it like we saw it: Jared Shuster looked awful in the first inning Sunday. He looked completely flustered to start the game - it seemed that his nerves got the better of him and he was rushing his entire pace, looking completely different than the pitcher we saw in his Spring Training performances. He had almost no luck finding the strike zone. Yet, he found plenty of bat barrels, allowing three hits and three walks to start the game (that included walking in a run). He did calm down and started dealing while finishing off the next three batters to end the inning, but there was already four runs on the board.

Good News

Shuster ended the first and the next few innings looking really good. It is possible that the best thing for this young man’s future was to go through such an outing. He stared down a start that was falling apart, got his emotions under control and looked like the pitcher we saw in Spring Training. This experience will pay huge dividends for the Braves and Shuster down the road.

Bad News

Sean Murphy looked atrocious offensively. His batting average after a three game series is, well, zero. He is batting .000. He never made any solid contact with the ball and his on base percentage would be .000 as well if he wasn’t gifted a base on balls.

Good News

Sean Murphy’s defense is stellar. He has the defensive play of the season this far (shown below) with a vicious display of arm strength and accuracy nailing the Nationals' Garcia at second base. Murphy also stayed in front of a lot of balls that could have easily been errors. The production of Atlanta's other catcher, Travis d'Arnaud (who batted .462 with three RBIs) was more than adequate to make up for Murphy’s current offensive shortcomings.

𝐖𝐄𝐋𝐂𝐎𝐌𝐄 𝐓𝐎 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐀𝐓𝐋𝐀𝐍𝐓𝐀 𝐁𝐑𝐀𝐕𝐄𝐒 𝐒𝐄𝐀𝐍 𝐌𝐔𝐑𝐏𝐇𝐘😤 pic.twitter.com/T3i9dShqcO

— Bally Sports: Braves (@BravesOnBally) April 2, 2023

Overall

The Braves won a series they should have one. That is what good teams do. It is early in the season and there are plenty of corrections to make. Those corrections are what great teams handle. Not an entirely bad place to be. They get their chance to improve tonight when they visit the St. Louis Cardinals for an early season divisional leaders tilt against the Cardinals at Busch Stadium. The first pitch is scheduled for 7:45 ET. The game broadcast, with Voice of the Braves Brandon Gaudin, is available inside Braves Country on Bally Sports Southeast, and is available on MLB.TV outside of the broadcast area. The radio call, with Ben Ingram, is available locally on WIFN 1340 AM/103.7FM or outside the Atlanta market on the Atlanta Braves Radio Network or MLB.com.

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