Braves continue skid, Ronald Acuña Jr. injury update

In the span of a month, the Braves have turned into a team that’s painful to watch for three hours every night. The rotation is disgusting, the offense belongs in Triple-A. The bullpen… well, we’re not talking about the few good things right now.

All of that continued on Tuesday night as the Braves opened a fresh homestand against the Cardinals. Ozzie Albies gave the Braves a brief lead with a sac fly in the third inning, but the Cardinals took control of the game in the following frame against Martin Perez, racking up four runs, three of which came on a smoked home run over the right field wall.

Perez has been a nice story. He wasn’t even supposed to make the roster coming out of Spring Training and was even designated for assignment earlier in the season. Thankfully, the Braves were able to somehow retain him or who the hell knows where this team would be right now, but the truth is his success is very unlikely to continue over the course of 162 games. He’s a back of the rotation starter at this point in his career that the Braves are counting on to pitch like their number two.

It’s a nightmare, especially with an offense that’s just littered with unproductive black holes. The Braves had plenty of opportunities to score runs — helped out by seven walks from Cardinals pitchers — but went 1-12 with runners in scoring position on their way to a 5-3 loss.

The Braves have now lost three in a row and seven of their last eight. Over that stretch, the offense has scored more than four runs just one time.

It’s been clear for years now, but this season is really hammering it home. When the Braves have Ronald Acuña Jr. in the lineup, they are among the best teams in baseball. When they don’t, they are one of the worst. There is no stat that fully encapsulates what he brings to the club better than wins and losses. The Braves are 21 games over .500 this season with him in the lineup, and six games under without him. For his career, they are a staggering 521-349 with him and 208-198 without him.

Getting him back seems to be the only way they might be able to stop the bleeding, but unfortunately, that’s unlikely to happen until after the All-Star break, according to Braves manager Walt Weiss.