Braves’ Bullpen falls badly in seventh place, blows the lead at the loss of opening

San Diego – If you had to do it again, you have to think that the Atlanta Braves would have added at least one elite setup – man – one in his heyday. No matter which team officials said.

The braves lost their two best setup relievers in Joe Jiménez (Kreiechirurgy) and AJ Minter (free agency) and only added free agents and non-squad invitations for minor-league.

At best, this plan looked shaky after the opening day when the newcomer Héctor Neris and the returnee Aaron Bummer-now the top setup man of the braves-one lead and played the game in a quarter of seventh inning that raised the San Diego Padres to a 7:4 win in Petco Park sold.

This bad inning spoiled a few Homer from Ozzie Albies and Austin Riley and a solid debut by Chris Sale and left manager Brian Snitker to answer several questions about a bullpen that is still in the works to express it in a friendly manner.

Héctor Neris and Aaron Bummer, illustration, gave up four runs in a span of seven batteries. (Orlando Ramirez / Getty Images)

“It was really a hard inning in every respect,” said Snitker about the four-run seventh, who rolled with Neris and gave up a 405-foot home on a fast ball with 93.5 miles per hour to pinch hitter gavin leaves. It was the first dough that was confronted by the 35-year-old right-handed man who signed in early March and set up in three Grapefruit League games last week.

“Oh no, he’s ready,” said Snitker about Neris’ cutting out. “I think he had the feeling that he gave this Leadoff Schlagmann. I like where he was when we want to use it, because depending on whenever we use it, we will ask this question.

After the Homer-Blätter, the nine-high-hitter Elias Díaz raised before Fernando Tatis Jr. won the right side, where Albies would have been if he did not cover second place with Pinch Runner Jason Heyward (yes, J-Hey).

“Nothing else, they just attack the pitcher,” said Neris when he was asked if he had changed his pitch selection or his approach. “I cannot control the situation afterwards (the Homer). Try to throw the ball on the plate, try to let him swing. That is.”

Neris was replaced by Bummer, who threw a wild field in front of a victim fly by Luis Araez, an RBI double by Manny Machado and, with intention on Xander Bogaerts, another sacrificial fly by Jackson Merrill. This was caught by the right field Jarred Kelenic, who put a three-hunting throw on the plate.

In a period of seven batteries, Neris and Bummer gave up four runs, and the one-run lead of the Braves became a three-run deficit.

The sale enabled two runs in the first inning, but only one in the next four and left with a lead of 4: 3. Dylan Lee raised a perfect sixth inning and continued the impressive work that the Lefty did last season and the whole spring. It designed in seventh place, but the sale, the reigning NL Triple Crown and Cy Young Award winner, said that he has full confidence in the Bullpen.

“I think it’s just the first game of the season, man, honestly,” said Sale. “Everything can happen. This is a long season. I said a lot that I don’t get too much weight in the debuts for the Major League or the first games of the season because it is just a lot going on. You know, check the book, Neris has been a bad man for a long time.

Snitker cited positive, including the excursion of sale. The left-hander needed 29 parking spaces to go through the first inner, but in the next four only 55. The manager also noticed the big hits, including Albies’ two runs, two-out Homer in the third, Rileys two-out home, who in the fourth and potential Homer of Albies in the fourth and rookie-catcher Drake Baldwin in fifth.

The left field player Brandon Lockridge ran and jumped up to take a Homer with three runs from Albies with two outs in fourth, which would have opened a 7: 3 lead if his trajectory had not been interrupted. Baldwin met an almost 400 foot until the direct center, which looked as if it had landed directly behind the fence, was brought back by Merrill, an excellent player in the second year on both sides of the ball.

“I didn’t feel bad because it was a run or the rally that it would have started,” said 21-year-old Merrill. “But I went to Drake. I said: ‘Sorry, man, your debut.’ I can’t understand how it feels.

It was a different Albies than the one that the Padres saw in the Wild Card series in October when the Switch Hitter only right-handed Hiller due to pain in his left wrist, which he had broken in July, was only right-handed, which led to missing for two months. Albies returned in the last 10 games of the season, but fought this plate and then went 1-8 with four rashes in the Padres Playoff-Sweep in San Diego.

Albies showed up with his first Homerun that the strength is back on the left wrist.

“I thought the bats had a hard starter all day long,” said Snitker, after the good four runs in 2 2/3 innings against Padres right-handed Michael King, who ran and gave up four goals, including the Albies Homer for a 3-2 lead.

But over this bullpen …

Snitker kept returning to an ongoing project and said he likes the parts he tries to work together. The Braves open with seven games in so many days, including three more in San Diego in front of a three-game series in the Dodger Stadium. At first it is a hard trip, even if the Bullpen has been fully established and organized.

“It is like going through the process when we expand. We have seven (games) in a row and everyone has to play a role,” said Snitker. “It didn’t work today and we’ll see what will happen tomorrow.”

In 2024, the Braves took third place in the majors with a 3.32-bullpen era before the fourth Dodgers (3.53). Atlanta Relievers started the new season by giving up four deserved runs in three innings.

“You look at our team from last year and it was a pillar of this team,” said Sale about the Bullpen. “It was clearly one of our strengths. We have many of these boys back and the new additions are really good. Today it was difficult again. But it is baseball, it will happen.

“I think I can now speak for everyone in this clubhouse that we not only have confidence in the world in this team, but especially this bullpen.”

Braves fans and team officials hope that he is right.

(Chris Sale Topto: Denis Poroy / Imagn Images)