Sep 14 2009
The Bipolar Braves aren’t going away
A week ago, when the Braves most needed to win some games to close out a road trip and a quick three-game homestand, they dropped five in a row including being swept at home by the Cincinnati Reds. At that point, they fell to 8.5 games out of first place and the season looked to be done.
Then they went out on the road for six games, with three against the NL leading St. Louis Cardinals, and the Braves nearly swept the road trip, going a combined 5-1 with a sweep over the Cardinals, proving to everyone they still have a team capable enough of winning. The one loss on the trip is questionable, at best. With rookie phenom Tommy Hanson cruising through eight innings in Houston, Bobby Cox went to the closer in the ninth inning of a 1-run game and he coughed it up by giving up two runs.
I’ve always considered myself a realistic fan, not one to get too caught up in the highs and lows of a season, so I know it’ll be hard for the Braves to make up a 7.5 game gap with only 19 games left on the schedule. It’s nearly impossible to make such a charge, but if the last week is any indication, you have to believe they have the team to at least make things interesting down the stretch.
The team has 19 games left and all are inside the division. They play the division leading Phillies for three of those and the second place Marlins for three, as well. The other 13 games are against the cellar dwelling Mets and Nationals. To have any kind of shot at making this charge, the Braves are going to have to take care of business against the teams they should beat.
It’ll be a hard push, and it’ll be an unlikely one, but the Phillies aren’t exactly slamming the door on them just yet. If they can just put some pressure on the Phillies the rest of the way, we may just see another NL East collapse like we have seen in the previous two seasons.
