The Pittsburgh Pirates are one of the three worst teams in baseball. On Monday, the Braves were savagely beaten by those Pirates, who symbolically slammed the door on any momentum Atlanta took from a dramatic win on Sunday. This has been a season-long trend for the Braves: approach or even reach .500, then collapse.
Recently the Atlanta offense has been an abject disaster. Finding a scapegoat in the midst of these offensive struggles has been difficult, as nearly the entire offense has been inconsistent. Losing two key contributors in Marcell Ozuna and Travis d’Arnaud set the offense back considerably, but getting essentially nothing from Dansby Swanson and Cristian Pache has been just as costly.