Which Braves’ players need to have a better second half of the season?

As the Atlanta Braves opened up a three game series with the San Francisco Giants on Tuesday, the final outcome would result in a 5-3 loss for Atlanta, giving them back to back losses for the second time in their last six games. And while the Braves appeared to be getting Tuesday’s game off on the right foot with back to back homeruns from Austin Riley and Sean Murphy, Atlanta would muster just six total hits on the night, as their bats seemingly cooled off once again.

And with the Braves continuing to struggle for offensive consistency at the plate and get back to some resemblance of last year’s team that finished with a league high, 1543 hits, they currently find themselves in the middle of the pack at 16 ^th in the league with total hits (678) this season. “This was expected to be an historic offense,” Mike Johnson, of The Morning Shift, said on Tuesday as he, Tiffany Blackmon and Beau Morgan shared their thoughts on what seems to be plaguing the 2023 N.L. East Champions.

As the trio continued their conversation, they began to discuss which Braves’ players they believe would need to have a better second half to the season with Johnson highlighting Reynaldo Lopez and Matt Olson in particular.
“If Matt Olson can get some hits last night, they win the game,” Morgan said in response to Johnson’s question, stating that he would be satisfied with Lopez if can continue to produce outings that he has to this point in the season.

“Give me a quality start or even close to it which is six innings and three earned runs, then I think this team is in a good spot. The problem is I’m saying that based on this offense producing more than it has and it just hasn’t been very good,” Morgan said as he expressed that the Braves are is desperate need of figuring out their offense, however emphasizing that “this is not even close to the offense that was on the field last year,” despite the expectations by some that it should be producing that way.