Muller has 'tough day' as bats' bids fall short

ATLANTA -- With their 3-2 loss to the Marlins on Saturday afternoon at Truist Park, the Braves ensured it will be at least a few more days before they produce their first winning record of the season. But the wait could be much longer if their depleted offense doesn’t start providing more consistent production.

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Kyle Muller further entrenched himself in the rotation by allowing just three runs over 5 2/3 innings. But the rookie left-hander’s effort was squandered, as the Braves were limited to two runs or fewer for the seventh time in their past 15 games.

“I love the way [Muller] competed,” Braves manager Brian Snitker said. “That was very impressive for a young guy that things have been going pretty good for. Then he got a little adversity, and he hung in there and kept the game in check.”

Making his third career start, and first in front of the home crowd, Muller struck out the first three batters he faced and kept the Marlins scoreless until Jazz Chisholm Jr. and Garrett Cooper tallied RBI singles in the third. Cooper’s solo homer in the sixth accounted for the only other run allowed by the southpaw, who has allowed just four runs and five hits through the first 14 2/3 innings he has worked as a starting pitcher.

“I was excited to have some tough innings to be able to battle back against a little bit of adversity and then kind of test myself,” Muller said. “I came back with two good innings after [the third]. Then [Cooper] jumped me on a first-pitch fastball. Hats off to him for hitting it out. It was a good day. It was a tough day. I had to grind through it."

Struggling with his fastball command, Muller threw his slider 35 percent of the time and his curveball 20 percent of the time. The Marlins whiffed on half of the 18 swings they took against his slider and on five of the six swings they took against the curveball.

The Braves were bidding to even their record through 82 games and position themselves to move their record above .500 for the first time this season. Instead, they were reintroduced to their season-long offensive frustrations.

Through the first 18 innings of this series, the Braves have totaled 10 hits and three runs against the Marlins. This is the same lineup that tallied 20 runs against the Mets on Wednesday and then erupted for three first-inning runs against Jacob deGrom on Thursday.

But it’s also the same offense that has habitually squandered opportunities over the past few weeks. They extended this trend by going 2-for-11 with runners in scoring position on Saturday.

This latest frustrating afternoon was influenced by Sandy Alcantara, who entered the game with a 2.02 ERA over his past five starts. Alcantara touched 100 mph and sat between 98-99 mph with his fastball. He issued consecutive walks to Ronald Acuña Jr. and Freddie Freeman during both the first and third innings. But the Braves didn’t get on the board until Ozzie Albies scored Acuña with a single in the fifth. Austin Riley followed Albies’ single with a double-play groundout.

“My God,” Snitker said. “[Alcantara's] another of those guys who plays catch at 100. His stuff is so live, and that’s kind of what they look like. He’s a really, really good pitcher.”

Acuña reached via an error with one out in the fifth, and the Braves tallied their only other run after Ehire Adrianza reached courtesy of left fielder Jesús Sánchez’s two-base error to begin the bottom of the seventh. Freeman then scored Adrianza with a one-out RBI single. But after Riley drew a two-out walk, Marlins reliever Dylan Floro induced a Dansby Swanson groundout.

When Pablo López was ejected after hitting Acuña with the first pitch of Friday’s game, there was reason to think that the Marlins might have to deal with lingering adverse effects. But their relief corps worked eight scoreless innings in the series opener and allowed one unearned run through three frames on Saturday.