Braves coach Brian Snitker send’s good news..

“It’s O.K. to have a couple bad stretches,” left fielder Jarred Kelenic said June 5 after the Braves were shut out at Boston.

“We’re gonna get better, we’re gonna kind of start hitting on all cylinders and things will be fine,” Snitker said Sunday after the Braves dropped three of four to the Nationals for the second time in two weeks, this time in Washington.

It remains difficult to believe that the six-time defending National League East champions, the team that a year ago tied the major-league record for home runs in a season, won’t regain their form at the plate. In public statements, the Braves clearly are confident that more productive batting days are ahead.

However, the sample size continues to grow and has done little to back up the Braves’ statements of belief. After the series loss at Washington this past weekend, in which the Braves scored 14 runs in four games against a Nationals team that had allowed 23 runs in three games in its preceding series (to the dragging Mets, no less), the numbers are as confounding as they are difficult to ignore.

From April 29 through Sunday, a 37-game stretch, the Braves are hitting .220 (29th in the 30-team MLB in that span), have an OPS of .643 (also 29th) and have scored 130 runs (29th again). In those 37 games, which constitutes more than a fifth of the season, the Braves are 16-21.

This is more than some unlucky bounces or running into a streak of hot pitchers. It’s a stretch of ineffectiveness that is highly out of the norm. Prior to this season, the last season in which the Braves were at or below those meager standards (.220 batting average, .643 OPS, 130 runs) for a 37-game stretch was – brace yourself – 1988. That was a 54-win team that finished 39.5 games out of first place and was shut out 17 times. (Rather remarkably, the roster featured four future Hall of Famers – Tom Glavine, John Smoltz, Bruce Sutter and Ted Simmons – and one legend who should be enshrined, Dale Murphy.)

And this prolonged slump is even more bizarre because, up until April 29, the Braves were hitting .277 (first in MLB) with an OPS of .801 (first) and had scored 149 runs (a mere fourth, although their 5.7 runs-per-game average was first). After a home series win over Cleveland, they were 19-7 and in first place in the NL East.

But with each passing game, the possibility only grows that this run-scarce form of the Braves is an approximation of what the rest of the season will look like, as entirely puzzling as that might be.

Blame Comcast, blame the absence of third-base coach Ron Washington (now helming the Angels), blame whatever food was served on the charter flight from Atlanta to Seattle that precipitated this massive slide.