The Braves 2014 season has come to this, and then there were 10.  Just 10 games left in a season that started out with such promise and now is very likely to end with the games 10 games back of the Nationals or more.  There will very likely be no post season action for the Braves this year.

The season started out looking pretty good.  The team was winning more than they were losing and they were leading the NL West by several games for a fairly long stretch.  Braves fans had hope.  The new season looked so very promising.  Then, the injuries started.  The pitching went down like so many bowling pins on a strike.  One, then another, then another.  It started a chain reaction it seemed and there would be no coming back from it.

Not because there still wasn’t decent pitching on the team, there was.  The injuries were not the cause of the Braves downfall, they were just a side piece.  The Braves downfall, on display even when they were winning and leading the division, is what it has been for the past several years and the injuries had nothing to do with it.  As I have stated numerous times, the numbers back me up, the Braves are utterly incapable of playing small ball.  They seem unable to learn this skill.  The team plays hoping some home run or two will secure the game and they swing freely trying to get those home runs.  It is all about power hitting.

Hundreds, and I am not exaggerating, hundreds of men left on base.  Through hits or walks, hundreds get on base, any base.  Many, many games lost by one or two runs and they could have, should have been won.  Add to the men left on base, an utterly abysmal RISP.  It seems if any runner gets near second or third base the ONLY thing the Braves know how to do is swing away trying to get home runs.  Nobody understands the concept of moving men around….nobody.  Not the coach, not the hitters.  They are all in the “let’s hit a home run” mind set all the time.  Squeeze plays, stolen bases, bunts, sacrifice flies…those are foreign concepts.

Yes, the pitching injuries were significant, but the pitching that remained was good enough to keep most of the games close enough that they could have been won.  It was the abandonment of the fundamentals of the game that put the Braves in the position they are in right now.  Sitting 11.5 games behind the Nationals in the division and 5.5 games back in the Wildcard race.

And then there were 10…and another season slips away.