ATLANTA — What’s going on with Austin Riley? That was the question I asked Braves hitting coach Kevin Seitzer at batting practice Tuesday afternoon before a series opener against Arizona at Truist Park.
The third baseman had struggled mightily in recent weeks, going 7-for-42 (.167) with one extra-base hit, two RBIs, 16 strikeouts and a .460 OPS in his last 10 games before Tuesday, and batting just .221 with five homers, 13 RBIs and a .656 OPS in his last 30 games.
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“He’s trying too hard,” Seitzer said. “Forcing things a little bit. It happens when a team’s going good and you’re not, and you try and force results. He’s chasing results right now, just trying to do a little too much. Not that he’s trying to hit homers or anything, but he’s just trying to do really good, and his thoughts are on his mechanics, on the pitch, on location …
“So we’ve been talking. He knows what’s going on, now it’s a matter of just simplifying things. That’s his goal right now, just simplifying. Get all the stuff out, hunt his pitch, keep his approach, and get a base hit. Keep it that simple. So we’ll see what happens. But this is a kid that can get hot and be hot for a month-and-a-half. So it’s just a matter of things just starting to click for him, and then stay there.”
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A few hours later, Riley had his best game of the season, going 3-for-5 with a double, two homers and a career-high seven RBIs in a game against Arizona that the Braves still managed to lose 16-13, blowing a 13-12 lead after seven innings. It was their third loss in a row and fourth in five games since a 27-4 surge gave them the majors’ best record and largest division lead (distinctions they maintain despite the three-game skid).
It was a bad game for starter Bryce Elder and relievers Michael Tonkin and closer Raisel Iglesias, and sloppy for the Braves defense. But the Braves got an encouraging performance from Riley, one of the only hitters in their lineup who has not met or exceeded expectations this season.
Riley, who won a Silver Slugger Award as the NL’s best-hitting third baseman in 2021 and hit .288 with 71 homers, 200 RBIs and an .887 OPS over the past two seasons, entered Tuesday with 16 homers and a .763 OPS. That OPS was ninth among Braves regulars — behind both catchers and everyone else in the lineup except center fielder Michael Harris II, who started slow but has surged lately and was about to overtake Riley.
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On Tuesday, Riley suddenly looked like himself again.
“I’ve been fighting myself all year to really get things going,” he said. “It’s been up and down, up and down. Hopefully, that’s the spark that I need. Going into the off day, and then today, I just told myself, go out there and have fun. Don’t put too much pressure on yourself, go out there and have fun, play the game that you love. I felt a lot more relaxed up there at the plate.”
That’s the message that Seitzer delivered earlier. He described how Riley was overthinking things or, as some put it, paralysis by analysis. Riley is known for watching video extensively, searching for little flaws in his hitting mechanics and studying pitchers and pitches to discern which pitch types and locations are giving him trouble. Which is all good, but …
“When you get obsessed with it and you forget about the little white thing that’s coming at you, which you’ve got to be on time for and swing at strikes, that’s when it can get a little more difficult when you’re focused on mechanics,” Seitzer said.
“The only thing you can control is having a good at-bat, and that’s staying within yourself, have your plan, have your approach, and don’t try to do too much. And that’s be on time, swing at strikes. It’s easier said than done, but if it gets more complicated than that, if you start thinking what pitch you’re gonna get, where it’s gonna be — it’s like, ‘OK, make sure I don’t come off it, make sure I don’t get big, make sure I get my hands set on time’ … all of the stuff that can creep in.”
Those things were not evident Tuesday. In one game, he hit twice as many homers as he had all month, and more than three times as many RBIs as he’d previously totaled in July.
“Somebody asked me about him the other day,” Braves manager Brian Snitker said. “I said that’s one guy I don’t ever worry about. He always gives himself a chance to get going, regardless of where he’s at. I stopped worrying about him a long time ago because I know at some point he’s going to get hot.”
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Other Braves numbers Tuesday were notable for entirely different reasons:
• After Orlando Arcia’s two-run homer in the fifth inning gave the Braves an 11-8 lead, FanGraphs had the Braves with an 86.6 percent win expectancy.
• The Braves lost despite scoring 13 runs, the most runs the Diamondbacks allowed in a win in franchise history since 1998.
• Elder in his past two starts has pitched a total of six innings and allowed 13 hits, 14 runs (12 earned) and five walks with four strikeouts. His ERA climbed from 2.45 to 3.31 in two starts. He gave up seven runs in a career-low 3 1/3 innings on July 9 in the last game before the All-Star break, then lasted 2 2/3 innings Tuesday when he gave up seven hits and seven runs (five earned), throwing 76 pitches and recording eight outs.
• Coupled with Kolby Allard’s exit after 1 2/3 innings of Sunday’s loss to the White Sox, it marked the first time that Braves starters failed to complete three innings in consecutive games since 2002, when Tom Glavine and Jason Marquis each pitched two innings in the last two games of the season against the Mets at Shea Stadium.
• Braves have lost three consecutive games, all at Truist Park, after winning their previous 11 home games and 17 of 18.
• The Braves had their fifth three-error game this season, which is two more three-error games than any other team has.
• The last time the Braves lost a game in which they scored at least 13 runs was against Montreal — July 15, 1990, a 16-14 defeat versus the Expos.
Snitker said, “Just one of them days (for Elder). Couldn’t get by with anything. He’s had a couple of back-to-back ones now, I told him, you’ve just got to fight through it. It’s not going to be smooth sailing all the time …
“There were some plays that we normally make that we didn’t. But you know what, we’re going to play 162 of these things, and every now and then you’re going to play one of them. But the guys kept roaring back. We just had a hard time putting them down. They (Diamondbacks) are pretty good too. They’re an aggressive team and they don’t strike out a lot. They put the ball in play, they use their speed.”
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The manager added of his Braves, “They’re going to have days that aren’t going to be real good. We’ve had a whole bunch of days in the last three months that have been really, really, really good. We’re going to go through spells. It’s not easy doing this, navigating through an entire season. There’s nothing wrong, we’ll be right back at ’em tomorrow.”
(Photo of Austin Riley: Brett Davis / USA Today)
David O'Brien is a senior writer covering the Atlanta Braves for The Athletic. He previously covered the Braves for The Atlanta Journal-Constitution and covered the Marlins for eight seasons, including the 1997 World Series championship. He is a two-time winner of the NSMA Georgia Sportswriter of the Year award. Follow David on Twitter @DOBrienATL
