Braves hitting in clutch

It’s way too small a sample size to draw any conclusions from, particularly when Marlins right-hander Mat Latos pitched Tuesday night as if he were a nervous rookie and didn’t make it out of the seven-run first inning.

It’s worth noting that the Braves won their first two games, including the 12-2 dismantling of Miami, without hitting a home run and by getting far better situational hitting, fewer strikeouts, more walks, better defense and similarly solid pitching than they featured a year ago.

It’s a ridiculously small sample size for anyone to project anything from.

We will, however, point out that the Braves through two games were 10-for-22 (.455) with runners in scoring position, best in the majors among teams that have more than two at-bats in those situations. They have a majors-best .520 OBP with RISP, and in all situations with runners on base they led the majors in average (.424, 14-for33) and OBP (.486).

It’s just two games, but it’s a good start toward avoid anything remotely similar to 2014, when the Braves scored the second-fewest runs in the majors and ranked 28th in the majors with a .236 average with RISP.

“I think the thing I liked about the whole game was, we never gave any at-bats away, even at the end,” manager Fredi Gonzalez said.

Half of the 12 batters the Braves sent to the plate in the first went to two-strike counts, and five reached base. But the Braves were also aggressive on the bases.

“We were going from first to third, doing a lot of hustle plays,” said Freddie Freeman, who had two doubles and three of the Braves’ 14 hits. “That’s what we were trying to stress in spring training — put a lot of pressure on the defense.”

As for the lowered strikeout totals, only four NL teams had fewer whiffs than the Braves (12) before Wednesday, and those four teams had all played only one game.