Forty
The Braves have 40 games left in the regular season and only two of the teams they play in those games are over .500. I like those odds. The Braves have got to like those odds a lot. Currently still sitting at 14.5 games in first place in the NL East, it is surely a great schedule of games.
The team has been playing well of late excepting Saturday nights extra inning 1 run loss to the Nationals. Previous to that, they were winning and winning a lot. They are still living off the homerun ball and luckily for the team they are getting the long ball from the leadoff spot on down. Dan Uggla and BJ Upton are still languishing below .200. The rest of the lineup is performing admirably however and that is keeping the team on the winning side in most of their games. Uggla recently underwent Lasik eye surgery to improve his vision and it remains to be seen if that helps him or not. As a team this season, the Braves have hit 137 homeruns….that’s a lot of long ball baseball.
The Braves pitching is still holding up. The extra inning games are not something they want to make a habit of as they wear on a bullpen and the Braves will need to keep those arms as fresh as possible after an entire regular season for the post season. Braves starters are working the 3 to close to 4 ERA range at present. The middle relievers are mostly in the 2 range. Craig Kimbrel has converted 38 of 41 save opportunities.
The Braves finish up the series with the Nationals today. A win would give them the season series win. Coming up this week, it’s the Mets and the Cardinals. The Cardinals are one of the two teams over .500 that the Braves will face in the next 40 games. Another sweep of the Cards would just about be ideal. In just over a month, the post season will be upon us and the Braves may be sitting in one of the best spots they’ve been in years to start.
I am still working on trying to temper my excitement and the counting of the chickens……
Chop Heads 