With the 5-3 loss to the St. Louis Cardinals on Tuesday night, the Atlanta Braves are now 4-13 since June 9. At least now they can say dreaded month is over. They can mentally turn the page.
As we look ahead to July, we’ll look at who needs the new month the most and needs to keep doing what they’re already doing.
Saving Grace: Mauricio Dubón
As the offense has continued to sink, Dubón has experienced an inverse trend. Since June 9, he has batted .290 with a .754 OPS, two home runs and seven RBIs.
Both his season average and season OPS increased. He went hitless once in his final 17 games of June, and finished the month on an eight-game hitting streak. It’s unfortunate for him that what he’s doing hasn’t been able to translate to the win column.
Needs New Month: Drake Baldwin
At least he didn’t finish the month on a hitless streak. His single in the bottom of the seventh gave him his first base knock since June 17, his second game back.
He had 50 plate appearances since he returned. He’s gone 3-for-48 with a walk and reaching base on a hit by pitch. His strikeout rate is 44% overall during that span.
Baldwin needs to see what it’s July 1 and smack that reset button.
If it means anything, he’s been putting the ball in play more as of late. He has struck out four times in his last 19 trips to the plate. There has been some harder contact mixed in there that hasn’t gone his way. Maybe something will start to drop or find a hole during the new month.
Saving Grace: Chris Sale
Chris Sale continues to do what he does as the ace of the staff. He hasn’t gotten the run support, but he has gotten the job done regardless. In four starts, he had a 2.35 ERA with 29 strikeouts.
Baserunners gave him trouble. While he walked five total batters, he allowed 29 hits. To his credit, he managed to work around it. Regardless of whether they were flying high during the first week of the month or the misery that followed, Sale has been the same.
Needs New Month: Ha-Seong Kim
Maybe this will be the month that Kim starts to turn the corner. That’s as positive of an angle that can be found. There is no way to sugarcoat this one.
Kim’s last hit was on June 6. He’s only started five games during this tailspin. In five other games, he’s seen action in a game but never stepped in the batters box. The Braves haven’t been able to afford to wait and see.
Some of his recent swings have been better, but until some results show, the Braves aren’t going to have much confidence. Maybe that comes in July. We’ll find out.
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