The Braves extended their losing streak to seven games after falling to David Price and the Red Sox 11-4 Tuesday night, after Boston roughed up Matt Wisler for four runs in the first inning.
For a bit more perspective on what this loss does for the Braves so far this season, we turn to the always reliable Mark Bowman, of MLB.com:
The Braves have now lost 16 of their first 20 games, including 12 of their first 13 at Turner Field
— Mark Bowman (@mlbbowman) April 27, 2016
That's not good.
And after an encouraging first few starts, it was also not good to see Wisler allow five earned runs through five innings while striking out and walking three. As I mentioned earlier though, most of that damage came in the first inning when Travis Shaw hit a three-run homer and Brock Holt followed that up with an RBI-double.
The Braves responded in the bottom of the first thanks to Jeff Francoeur's RBI single to center that scored Adonis Garcia. After that though, the Red Sox scored twice more over the next seven innings and the Braves scored once more — on a Wisler sac fly with the bases loaded in the fourth.
Then came the top of the ninth though, where the Red Sox removed all hope — if you still had any left — of the Braves making the comeback. Boston scored five runs on five hits during the final frame with Ryan Weber on the mound and while Atlanta at least managed to put a couple runs on the board in the bottom of the frame, but at that point it was just delaying the inevitable.
David Price's line was phenomenal: 8 IP, 6 H, 2 ER, 2 BB, 14 Ks. He dropped his ERA from 7.06 to 5.76 in one game against the Braves, which is something. There's also a pretty big shift in his FIP and xFIP before and after this one. The FIP went from 3.17 to 2.40 and his xFIP went from 2.86 to 2.38.
I guess it speaks to the state of the team that I find Price's numbers falling so rapidly versus the Braves so interesting.
The Braves will try and steal a game in the series tomorrow at 7:10 p.m. ET.