Atlanta Braves Week 4: What Have We Learned?

Apr 27, 2014; Atlanta, GA, USA; Atlanta Braves first baseman Freddie Freeman (5) reacts with team mates after driving in the game winning run with a hit against the Cincinnati Reds during the tenth inning at Turner Field. The Braves defeated the Reds 1-0 in ten innings. Mandatory Credit: Dale Zanine-USA TODAY Sports

The Atlanta Braves wrapped up their fourth week of play here in 2014 yesterday, after sweeping the Cincinnati Reds, and totaling a 5-1 record on the week, dropping only a 1-0 game in the middle matchup of the Miami Marlins‘ series. For the sake of not sounding like a broken record from the previous three WHWL’s, I’ll try to shake things up a bit.

Run support! Something that has ruined a great outing time and time again hasn’t seemed to be a problem except for once every two or so series (except that Phillies set. That was an odd group of games). Take a look at the wins going back to the home Washington series – 7 runs, 6 runs, 10 runs, 9 runs, 6 runs, 7 runs, 4 runs, 5 runs…you get the gist. Especially over this past Reds series, Freddie Freeman and Justin Upton have seemed to really turn it up a notch, B.J. Upton is getting on base frequently (yay!), Evan Gattis still knows how to hit a clutch home run…the list could go on and on. Long story short – the Braves are scoring runs and are only wasting outings about once a series instead of every other night.

Let’s get this party started. Hope you guys enjoyed the opening month of the season, because May is about to get real. The Marlins will take the Braves into and out of May, and in between are two three game series with the San Francisco Giants (first place), two three gammers with the putrid (I don’t think that’s a strong enough word) St. Louis Cardinals (second place, 4.5 games behind Milwaukee) a four-game homes stand versus those Brewers (who are a single win ahead of the Braves for the best record in baseball) and a two game home and home with Boston Red Sox (who are in the bottom half of their division, but are the defending world champions). Atlanta has shown what they can do against the division, and the next month is going to feel a lot like October. A few statements here might not mean much to the rest of the league, but for a team as young as the Braves, it’ll be a hat-hanging feat to escape with a winning record, and could set up for a rest of the season to remember.

The view from here looks awfully good. Not much to say here, except we are at the end of the month and FIRST PLACE BABY. And by no accident either. When you (finally, and as mentioned above) have timely hitting, as well as the best starting rotation in (literally) all of baseball, and most of it coming against your own division, it creates a nice parody to open the season with. Good luck saying the first month didn’t mean anything again this year, especially if the Braves win the division by less than 10 games. The division was won this month.

Well, when you’re 10 games over .500 after the first month, it’s hard to find many things to complain about, and it’s incredibly easy to get a little over excited, which I’m not afraid to say I am right now. Yes, the MLB season is a marathon, but leading the pack after 25 games isn’t shabby. However, as stated earlier, the schedule is going to get tougher, and things are about to get a whole lot funner. More fun? More funner? Oh well. Let the games begin.

P.S. – Let’s congratulate the Junior Bossman for hit 1,000. Can’t wait to see him get 1,000 more, and hopefully all with the A on his cap.