The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
DAZED IN THE DESERT
Another bad start by Blair sets tone as Arizona wins series.
Aaron Blair was not good in his
PHOENIX — major league season debut Wednesday, but plenty of the Braves right-hander’s teammates weren’t a lot better in a listless 10-3 loss to the Diamondbacks at Chase Field that completed a three-game series and the western two-thirds of a three-city trip.
Making a fill-in start after Jaime Garcia was traded this week, Blair gave up five hits, five runs and five walks in three innings including an eventful four-run third inning — there was a stand-up inside-the-park homer — that sent
the Diamondbacks to a series-clinching win and left him with a 2-8 record and 7.89 ERA in 16 starts over two seasons.
“Couldn’t really locate the fastball when I needed to,” Blair said. “I had the slider and the curveball for strikes when I needed it, just kind of fell behind and when I needed to make
a pitch it just wasn’t there.”
The Braves botched a rundown on a Gregor Blanco stolen base that helped the Diamondbacks score a tying run in the first inning, and Blair gave up a two-run triple and an inside-the-park homer on hard-hit balls that also took quirky bounces. Still, neither he nor the bullpen could stop the bleeding.
“It all comes down to making pitches,” Blair said. “Five free passes in three innings is not going to help you at all.”
J.D. Martinez added two homers for the Diamondbacks, against relievers Luke Jackson in the fourth inning and Ian Krol in the eighth, giving the Arizona newcomer three homers in the threegame series.
“(Blair) just had trouble making some pitches,” said manager Brian Snitker, whose Braves have seven losses in 10 games since their three-game sweep of the Diamondbacks in Atlanta in the first series after the All-Star break. (Martinez was still with Detroit at that time.)
“We screwed up the rundown, which cost him a run, and it just kind of got away from him there in a hurry. We walked way too many guys. They’re just too dan- gerous, too deep, their lineup’s too long to do all that.”
The Braves are 3-4 on an 11-game, three-city trip that
started in Los Angeles and will conclude with a fourgame series at Philadelphia that begins Friday.
They were 8-11 in a stretch that included six series against five teams with a combined .612 percentage
before Wednesday, including the division-leading Astros, Nationals and Dodgers, plus the Cubs and two series against Arizona, which has baseball’s second-best home record (36-18).
“We’ve been p laying
good,” said Braves center fielder Ender Inciarte, a former Diamondback. “I always
about consistency. Today we didn’t play the way we’ve been playing. It’s hard to win every night, but every time I come to the ballpark
I expect us to win, and it’s frustrating that we couldn’t take that series here.”
Blair was staked to a 1-0 lead before throwing a pitch. Brandon Phillips singled in the first inning, Freddie Free- man doubled and Matt Kemp drove in a run with a groundout. But after a Tyler Flowers walk, Sean Rodriguez struck out to end the inning and set a pattern against lefthander Patrick Corbin (8-9).
The Braves were 0 for 6 with runners in scoring position through the first four innings, leaving nine runners on base in that stretch — including multiple runners in every inning. They also failed to score after a leadoff walk in the fifth against Corbin, who allowed seven hits and four walks in six innings but only two runs.
Blair needed 75 pitches to get through three innings and has now lasted 4⅓ or fewer innings in half of his major league starts. This outing was his second-shortest in the majors, longer only than the 25-year-old righthander’s fifth start May 17 last season, when he gave up nine hits and nine runs in 1⅓ innings at Pittsburgh in what was Snitker’s debut as interim manager after Fredi Gonzalez was fired.
Beginning with that game, Blair has a 9.34 ERA in his past dozen starts while allowing five or more earned runs seven times. He’s lasted more than five innings just four times.
The Braves haven’t said who’ll fill the rotation spot when it comes up Tuesday against the Dodgers, but Lucas Sims at Triple-A Gwinnett is a leading candidate, along with veteran Kris Medlen, also at Gwinnett.