Reeling Riley not panicking over hitting struggles

Riley is hitting just .176 and slugging just .206. He’s 6-for-34 and has struck out nine times. In the last seven games, the Braves’ third baseman is 2-for-23 and has fanned six times.

Braves manager Walt Weiss tried to give Riley a day off Sunday in Arizona against the Diamondbacks, a chance for Riley to refresh and recenter. But in a 5-4 game, Riley was called upon to pinch-hit in the eighth with a man on first and two — and he fouled out to first.

Two innings later, with the go-ahead run 90 feet away and two outs, Riley softly flied out to right field to end the inning.

“I didn’t want to have to play him, to be honest with you. I just wanted to give him a full day,” Weiss said after Sunday’s loss. “But it’s tough when he’s sitting over there and the game’s on the line to not use him. I thought for sure when he went up there to pinch-hit, he was gonna hit a homer.”

Had Weiss’ premonition come true, it would have been Riley’s first homer of the year. Instead, Riley is in the midst of the second-longest homerless drought of his career to start a season (he went the first 17 games of 2021 without leaving the yard).

Riley said he feels he’s just missing pitches and added he has been “soggy” on his front-side, which has put him behind in his swing. The analytics show that to be true, as Riley has only pulled 4% of the fly balls he has hit.

The analytics also show that Riley hasn’t really run into much bad luck, either, with the expected batting average at .174 and expected slugging at .266. Riley has only “barreled” one ball so far.

“Just gotta get back to being ready to hit is what it boils down to,” Riley said. “I think I was a little jumpy early on; now it’s about kind of trying to slow the game down, and now the game’s it’s a little passive. Trying to find that happy medium.”

In 17 Grapefruit League games during spring training, Riley hit .357 and had an OPS of 1.237. He hit five homers, drove in 13 runs and coaxed seven walks. The signs were there for the now 29-year-old to begin the season hot.

And even though spring training numbers usually don’t count for much, if anything, Riley said going in and out of hitting slumps “1,000 times” during his career combined with his positive results in February and March give him confidence a return to form is right around the corner. The Braves certainly need it.

“I think that’s something that I can kind of lean on, too. I’m really close, and I feel like I was in a really good spot in spring,” Riley said. “I think, like I said, it’s just a matter of finding that happy medium of controlled aggression and not trying to do too much, let the game come to me.”