When Shane Greene was traded from Detroit to Atlanta at the July 31 deadline, he arrived with a 1.18 ERA and a load of self-confidence, making it clear he had been told he would pitch the ninth inning and that he intended to do what he had been doing for the last-place Tigers with the first-place Braves, the brighter lights of a playoff race notwithstanding.
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He lasted all of one week in the closer role. Making his Braves debut Aug. 3, Greene blew his first save and also absorbed a loss in five appearances through Aug. 10, posting an 11.25 ERA, a .550 opponents’ batting average and a 1.491 opponents’ OPS. The numbers were so ghastly, Braves fans might have wondered if Greene was kidnapped and replaced somewhere between Detroit and Atlanta.
Now look at him. Now look at them. Atlanta’s relievers, that is.
The erstwhile whipping boys of the Braves, a bullpen maligned for much of the first four-plus months of the season, has transformed into the sturdy unit Braves general manager Alex Anthopoulos envisioned when he traded for Greene, Chris Martin and Mark Melancon in three separate deals.
They have been instrumental in many of the Braves’ 17 wins in their past 21 games, which have kept them 6.5 games ahead of the Washington Nationals. The National League East’s top two teams meet seven times in an 11-game stretch, beginning with a four-game series at SunTrust Park that starts Thursday.
Atlanta’s newcomers weren’t needed in Wednesday’s 7-2 win over Toronto, which extended the Braves’ winning streak to six games and their home winning streak to 10. It’s their longest home streak since they won 12 in a row at Turner Field in April and May 2000.
It took a little more than two weeks for the parts to fit, but Atlanta’s bullpen has become a strength as the Braves march toward a second consecutive NL East title and a postseason appearance they want to last longer than last season’s.
The Braves have converted all seven of their save chances since blowing 21 of 54 save opportunities through Aug. 16. Melancon, who became the closer on Aug. 9, has been perfect in eight opportunities.
Greene struggled in his first two appearances after being stripped of closing duties, but in 11 scoreless appearances since Aug. 13, he has been terrific, allowing just four hits and one walk with 11 strikeouts in 11 innings. Opponents have hit .111 with a .246 OPS against him.
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“It’s an amazing thing because the sun comes up every morning, it’s a new day,” Greene said about his brutal beginning with the Braves and assuming eighth-inning setup duties. “One pitch at a time. The inning doesn’t matter, the hitters don’t matter, the score doesn’t matter. If I make my pitch, I’m gonna be all right.”
Braves manager Brian Snitker has been impressed by how Greene handled the change and his performances since.
“He told me when he first got here, he’ll pitch any time and as many innings as I needed him to,” Snitker said. “He said he didn’t care. And I think they all, to a man, just want to help this club do good and win, which says a lot about the individual.”
Martin, who was traded from Texas and saw Greene pitch plenty the past two seasons, wasn’t surprised at all to see him turn things around.
“The guy’s a professional. He’s been around a while,” Martin said. “He’s a closer. He knows things happen in this game, and he’s going to keep doing what he’s doing and keep preparing, keep trying to get better just like everyone else, and things fall into place. If he was a young guy he might have panicked a little bit, but being around and understanding … I’m sure he’s struggled and gone through it before.
“It’s probably nothing new. He knew just to go out there and keep battling, keep attacking, and things will turn around. And that’s exactly what’s happened.”
Atlanta relievers had a 2.16 ERA in 15 games from Aug. 17 through Monday, the second-best in the majors in that period behind Minnesota’s 2.01. Atlanta, Houston and San Diego relievers all had seven saves in that span, tops in the majors, and the Braves’ bullpen was tied for the fifth-lowest home-run rate at 0.70 per nine innings.
When asked if he was enjoying his new team and teammates, Greene provided an answer that indicated his confidence hasn’t been at all diminished.
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“Love it. I love this group,” he said. “How could you not? We’re the best team in baseball.”
Walks plagued Braves relievers for much of the season, but the new additions helped end that trend. From Aug. 17 through Monday, the Braves’ bullpen had a walk rate of 2.16 per nine innings, the fourth-lowest in the majors. Before, they had the majors’ highest walk rate at 4.25 per nine innings. They also ranked 15th with a 4.51 ERA and were 17th with a 1.40-per-nine-inning home-run rate until Aug. 17.
Martin, too, has had a couple of rocky outings with Atlanta, but he has issued one walk with 14 strikeouts in 12 1/3 innings in 14 appearances for the Braves. He has just five walks and 68 strikeouts in 60 innings this season.
“I can tell you who I’ve walked this year,” Martin said. “I’m trying to go out there and be aggressive. I’m not trying to give out free passes. Lately, I feel like I’ve been beaten with some weak contact, and balls finding holes and finding some green grass. When that happens, you’ve just got to keep going, and things will turn around.
“That’s the way this game goes. Don’t look too far into it, just keep doing what I’ve been doing and whatever happens, happens.”
After allowing eight hits and six runs in 4 2/3 innings in his first six appearances for Atlanta, Martin has a 2.35 ERA in his past eight appearances. He pitched in the seventh inning in three of those games, the eighth in two and the ninth in two non-save situations.
The Braves’ starters have been just as successful. They had a majors-leading 2.85 ERA and 7-1 record in 15 games before Tuesday. They were eighth in the majors with a 3.89 ERA since the All-Star break, including a 3.31 ERA and 9-2 record during the team’s 16-4 run in the 20 games entering Tuesday.
“It’s been incredible,” Melancon said of the starting rotation’s performance.
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Melancon, 34, an 11-year veteran and three-time All-Star, also struggled in his early appearances with the Braves. He gave up four runs and four hits while recording just one out in his first game as the closer and four hits and two runs Aug. 14 against the New York Mets. In his past eight appearances, he has allowed five hits and one run with no walks and 10 strikeouts in 7 1/3 innings.
Melancon, who led the NL in saves in 2015 with 51 in 53 chances for Pittsburgh, had a conversation with Greene when he was struggling.
“Him and I talked after the first couple of days and it’s like, ‘Just catch your breath, and we’ll be fine. No big deal,’” Melancon said. “So, there was no concerns. I felt like it was just coincidence that he had a couple of bad ones. We were trying to figure out what we were doing down there; I think everybody was. Didn’t want to overreact, for sure.”
Said Martin: “Through my experiences with a bullpen, it’s crazy how we all kind of work together. Bringing in three new guys, that’s going to cause a little chaos there for a minute, trying to figure out, you know, who’s going to throw where, who’s going to do what. Some guys like knowing when they’re not throwing, and some guys like to know their role, so they can prepare and get ready for it. It’s just a matter of time for guys to kind of get comfortable and understand kind of what the mindset is, what we’re trying to do down there.
“It’s starting to take shape, and it’s starting look pretty good.”
It has helped that they joined a relatively stable clubhouse and a bullpen that churned through dozens of relievers during the past two seasons and managed to avoid infighting.
“We’re a pretty welcoming group,” said Jerry Blevins, who was acquired from Oakland at end the end of April, designated for assignment two weeks later and re-signed to a major-league contract four days after that. “We’re all professionals. Most of us know what it’s like to be traded, so we try to make it a little easier for guys coming in.”
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Luke Jackson was the Braves’ closer early in the season after Arodys Vizcaíno had season-ending shoulder surgery and A.J. Minter was demoted to Triple A. Jackson pitched well for someone without experience in that role, but his seven blown saves in 25 chances were hard to overlook.
Jackson, converted starter Sean Newcomb and versatile Josh Tomlin were among those whose roles were altered with the arrival of the three veterans at the trade deadline. They’re now pitching earlier in games.
“You still get the hate,” said Jackson, who received harsh treatment via social media. “The hate’s always going to be there; that’s the way the world works. One bad outing, and it’s right back on full tilt.”
When the three newcomers had their rough initial outings with the Braves, Jackson could commiserate, particularly regarding the groundballs Melancon allowed that got through the infield for hits.
“You didn’t really see them get beat hard. Know what I mean?” Jackson said. “It was like how we’ve been getting beat all year — the base hit through the hole, the blooper that drops in, stuff you can’t defend against and that shouldn’t be costing you runs. Melancon, it might have been six singles — what are the odds of that happening?
“I told him, ‘It’s the curse, and you don’t want it.’ He was like, ‘It happens. It’ll even itself out.’ And I was like, ‘I keep telling myself that.’”
Jackson’s easygoing, upbeat personality hasn’t changed, and he’s enjoying the bullpen’s resurgence, even if his role has changed.
“We got 12 years older real quick,” he said, referring to the trades. “(We) went from the youngest bullpen in the league to probably the oldest. The fact that they’ve been great is awesome, but the fact that I get to learn and watch them go about their business, see how methodical these guys are, is even more of a bonus for all of us down there.”
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Jackson’s locker is next to that of Melancon, whom he speaks to frequently about pitching and getting through adversity.
Entering Tuesday, Melancon’s 0.5 WAR since Aug. 17 was the second-highest among major-league relievers, behind only the 0.7 put up by Cincinnati’s Michael Lorenzen.
After battling injuries and having forearm surgery to address a rare muscular syndrome in Sept. 2017, Melancon hadn’t been used as a closer by the Giants. Still, the 34-year-old had not given up the idea of returning to the role he always relished.
Asked if he thought he would get a chance to be a closer again, Melancon said he thought he would.
“It’s just one of those things that, if something is going well, why change it?” he said. “The way bullpens are these days, every role is extremely important. You have so many deep bullpens now, creating these super bullpens. That’s a good thing.
“I love coming in in that (ninth-inning save) situation. But it doesn’t mean that it can’t happen in the seventh, eighth or even the sixth. There’s a lot of opportunities for that situation. But I like being in the ninth. I’ve always enjoyed it.”
He’s now the closer in a bullpen that’s not only been effective but one that has perhaps more versatility than any other. The Braves’ relievers are different in either style or pitch repertoire, and most are quite different in both.
“That is kind of weird,” Jackson said. “We have a closer (in Melancon) who throws a cutter and a curveball. We’ve got a setup guy (in Greene) who’s throwing two-seamers and cutters and slurves and everything under the sun. Martin goes up there, he’s a big guy, but he paints; he’s a guy who spots up (his fastball). I’m kind of a power righty that goes in there, heaters up, sliders down and just kind of makes you hit my best stuff.
“Tomlin is just crafty as all get-out. Short, little crafty guy, as we call him — he hates that. We’ve got Jerry with the big curveball, confuses everyone; you go up there sitting curveball and it’s by you. Newk is a unicorn — he’s Rob Gronkowski throwing balls from the heavens, pounding the zone. Everyone in that bullpen is completely different, which makes it super interesting.”
And effective. And no longer maligned.
(Photo of Mark Melancon: John Adams / Getty Images)
