MILWAUKEE -- The Braves don’t need a complete offensive overhaul. They just need a spark.
That’s the feeling inside a clubhouse that has watched their hitters go quiet at a bad time, and Saturday’s 4-1 loss to the Brewers at American Family Field only reinforced the problem.
Atlanta has now lost five of six games on this road trip and seven of nine overall. More troubling than the losses themselves has been the way they’ve happened: the Braves have scored two runs or fewer in five of their six games this week, and for the second straight day in Milwaukee, they were held to a single run.
“We’ve got some good names in that lineup,” manager Walt Weiss said. “It’s just a matter of getting going again.”
That’s the tension surrounding this stretch. The Braves still believe in their offense because they’ve seen what they can accomplish when they’re hot. Over the course of the season, Weiss pointed out, Atlanta has still been one of the better offensive teams in baseball.
Right now, it just doesn’t resemble one.
The Braves have scored only 10 runs over the first six games of this road trip and haven’t homered since Drake Baldwin went deep Tuesday in Minnesota. That drought has now stretched to 116 at-bats, particularly notable for an offense that has done much of its damage with the long ball.
“We have been pretty reliant on the homer over the course of several years here,” Weiss said. “When we’re hitting the ball in the seats, that’s when we’re really thriving offensively.”
There were moments Saturday when it looked like a breakthrough might be coming.
Atlanta scored in the first inning, its first run in the opening two frames of a game since last Saturday, and immediately put Milwaukee starter Logan Henderson under pressure. But what could have become a crooked number instead became a familiar missed opportunity.
That theme followed the Braves throughout the afternoon. They finished 1-for-7 with runners in scoring position and, after putting the first two runners aboard in the ninth, watched the potential rally disappear on a flyout and a game-ending double play.
The frustrating part for Weiss is that the at-bats themselves haven’t always looked as poor as the results.
“I thought our bats have been much better these last two days,” Weiss said. “Especially compared to what they were in Minnesota.”
That distinction matters.
Friday brought Jacob Misiorowski, the Major League ERA leader and National League Cy Young favorite, and Saturday brought Henderson, who has yet to allow more than three runs in any of his first 18 Major League starts. The Braves haven’t exactly been handed soft landing spots while trying to rediscover their rhythm.
Michael Harris II sees some value in that.
“We faced some tough pitching lately, and that’s kind of what’s gonna happen in a playoff-like game,” Harris said. “So, I think it’s good for us to get that right now and make some changes.”
The timing makes the challenge especially relevant.
Atlanta entered Milwaukee in the middle of one of its most difficult stretches of the season, facing a Brewers club with the best record in baseball and playing the type of games the Braves hope to see again in October.
Milwaukee has shown why.
“They pitch,” Weiss said. “That’s first and foremost.”
The Brewers have also made life difficult in nearly every other area. They put the ball in play, work deep counts, run aggressively and force opposing defenses to execute. On Saturday, they drove Martín Pérez’s pitch count to 97 in only four innings.
But none of that changes Atlanta’s central problem. The Braves have to score more.
“The bottom line is we still haven’t scored many runs,” Weiss said. “You’ve got to score runs.”
Harris echoed that the solution isn’t panic or a dramatic adjustment. It’s execution.
“Just sticking to our plan, trying to execute the game plan we go into the game with, and adjust accordingly throughout the game,” Harris said. “Pitchers are gonna make adjustments to us, and we have to adjust back.”
That approach is being tested by more than just Milwaukee’s pitching.
The Phillies have continued to apply pressure in the NL East race, and the Braves’ once-comfortable margin has tightened during this skid. Harris said the clubhouse can’t afford to start scoreboard watching.
“You can’t think about who’s behind you,” Harris said. “As long as you win the game, you kind of control your own distance.”
For now, though, the Braves are still searching. The swings haven’t disappeared. The names haven’t changed. The belief inside the clubhouse remains.
What’s missing are the runs.
And until those return, every close game is going to feel just a little harder to win.