What Braves' Brutal Loss Says About Status of Starting Rotation

When manager Walt Weiss went to the bullpen Monday night, the score was tied 3-3 between the Atlanta Braves and the New York Mets.

He had gotten his typical five innings out of Martín Pérez, but he needed to cover the remaining three or four innings, depending on how the rest of the game played out. He opted for a long relief option in Connor Thomas.

While the expectations weren't high for Thomas to begin with, nobody could have expected what followed. He was left in for 2 2/3 innings, and he allowed 11 earned runs. A tie game turned into a double-digit loss. Thomas was left out there to be a proverbial punching bag.

Jorge Mateo was put in to cover one out in the bottom of the eighth. For what it's worth, they didn't have to send anybody out of the bottom of the ninth.

A common word used when describing what happened was that the Braves punted the game to get innings from as few pitchers as possible. It's hard to blame Walt Weiss for the decision either.

What occured Monday night had a build up to it.

Sunday required six pitchers to cover 11 innings. Two games out in Baltimore required extra innings to decide the game. Weiss had already used two of his long relievers: Victor Mederos and Elieser Hernández. Both were unavailable that game, one of whom was because he had to be designated for assignment.

Now, while Weiss has aired his grievances about the cap on the number of pitchers a roster can have, another problem became clearer. The upper limit for most of the members of the rotation has been completing five innings.

Since coming back from the All-Star break, the same number of starts have gone fewer than five innings as starts where a starting pitcher has completed six or more innings pitched (3). Two of those three starts where a starter pitched at least six innings came from Chris Sale.

This is a troubling trend that predates the return from the All-Star break, but enough has gone wrong since then to paint a picture. The break didn't provide the reset they had hoped for.

Apart from games where an injury occurred, this is one of the worst examples of the state of the team's starting rotation.

The bullpen is being taxed to the point where it's being pulled apart at the seams. Starting pitching is the backbone of any successful team, and there is a herniated disc that needs to be inspected.

With about a week until the trade deadline, things are starting to heat up. However, the Braves are currently quiet. Whatever they were hoping to see from their internal options ahead of a move can't possibly be what they were hoping for.

They've made it clear that they want to go after starting pitching at the deadline. Adding at least one would be their only serious solution to this dilemma. They may need two, but that's unrealistic.

If there was a glarring example of what is causing the Braves problems, Monday night provided one.

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