The Braves early-season struggles continued on Sunday, as they fell to the Marlins 5-4. That score belies the anemic offensive performance, as they scored three in the ninth and nearly completed their seemingly annual mega-comeback against the Marlins. It wasn’t to be in the end, however, and though it seemed as though the Braves might at least tie the game late, it’s tough to come to the conclusion that the loss was undeserved.

Down 5-1 entering the bottom of the ninth, the Braves caught a break when Travis Demeritte reached first on a wild pitch despite striking out. An Ozzie Albies double followed that and, after a Matt Olson fly out (which he technically got a sacrifice fly for), Austin Riley hammered a ball into the left-center field seats to suddenly pull the Braves to within a run with one out. Marcell Ozuna doubled to put the tying run in scoring position, but Adam Duvall and Eddie Rosario struck out in back-to-back at-bats to end the threat.

And that was pretty much it. The Braves mounted threats in the seventh and fifth, mainly due to a handful of walks issued by Miami pitching. They actually scored a run in the fifth to make it 2-1 at the time, but down 5-1 in the seventh, Riley grounded into a double play with the bases loaded and one out to immediately end that threat.

Bryce Elder got the start for the home side, and was kind of all over the place. He did manage to keep his team in the game, allowing two runs on five hits over 4.2 innings. However, he walked six over that span, and thus was constantly in trouble.

So this early-season swoon has not shown more than fleeting signs of letting up anytime soon. Your Bravos haven’t won a series yet, and they’ve played home sets against the Reds, Nationals and Marlins. I suppose it’s still early, but pretty soon it won’t be.

I thought it interesting that Mark Bowman seemed to go very heavy on the We Just Need Acuna Back, That’ll Solve Everything tack in what was supposed to be his game story today. That seems like a lot of pressure to put on him when he gets back, if you ask me.