They lost all three games of their weekend series against the Toronto Blue Jays at cozy TD Ballpark in Dunedin, Fla., completing the dismal visit with a 7-2 defeat Sunday afternoon.
All weekend, the Blue Jays showed off a deep batting order and a deep bullpen.
The weekend went so poorly for the Braves that starting pitcher Ian Anderson, who hadn’t allowed a run across 13-2/3 innings in his two previous starts, allowed four runs on six hits in four difficult innings of work on his birthday Sunday. It was his shortest start of the season, but he required 89 pitches to get that far. All four runs against Anderson scored with two out.
The Braves had their best opportunity in the fifth inning when, trailing 4-1, the bottom of the order loaded the bases with no outs. But after Ronald Acuna scored one runner with a sacrifice fly to deep center field, Blue Jays left-handed reliever Ryan Borucki struck out Freddie Freeman and Marcell Ozuna, continuing their uncharacteristic struggles against lefties. Freeman is 2-for-27 and Ozuna 1-for-23 against them this season.
As a team, the Braves had MLB’s second-worst batting average against left-handers, .179, better only than Detroit, entering play Sunday.
The Braves lost the first game of the series 13-5 on Friday night when the Blue Jays slammed six home runs, including three against starter Drew Smyly. They lost the second game 6-5 in 10 innings on Saturday night, the Jays hitting two more homers. One homer was hit in Sunday’s finale, a two-run shot by Toronto’s Marcus Semien in the eighth inning off Braves reliever Sean Newcomb to increase the Blue Jays’ lead from 4-2 to 6-2. It was Toronto’s ninth homer of the series, compared to three by the Braves.
The series was played at the Jays’ spring-training stadium because of Canada’s strict COVID-19 regulations.
Sunday’s loss was the Braves’ fourth in a row, their third four-game losing streak of the season. They are 12-16 and open a three-game series against the Nationals in Washington on Tuesday.
