Braves Have Reached Dangerous Part Of The Schedule
By W. M. Lawson
The Atlanta Braves (36-26) faltered in San Diego again Wednesday afternoon. That makes this Dodgers series a dangerous one.
How did this happen? Our (formerly) N.L. East leading Atlanta Braves just took 3 of 4 against Washington (a good club) and then dropped 2 of 3 to San Diego (not a good club). How did this happen? It looked like the boys went out last night. Not even joking. Now comes a three game set at the L.A. Dodgers, and a pivotal moment has arisen.
You had to think that, upon doing what they did to the Nats, a sweep of lowly San Diego was possible. Surely, they would win the dang series. Not so much. The Braves head to L.A. sitting at (5-5) in their last 10 games, and all of a sudden, look mortal, beatable, and shaky. It’s a long season, but these are the moments that test a club and define a season.
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A quick glance at the schedule, and you’ll see that L.A. (3), NY Mets (2), San Diego (4) fill it out through next weekend. That Dodgers team is playing well, and Atlanta isn’t exactly catching them at the best time. Well, except for the Kershaw thing. With how the Braves historically play in L.A., this series was already going to be a stout one, even with a series win against the Padres. The screws just got tighter.
The reason the term dangerous is applicable here is that, depending on the outcome of a very competitive Dodgers series, the other two go from being a chance to swing away and have fun to one where you kind of need to win it. Both of them.
It’s in those times that the character of a team is exposed or forged, or both. It was during these types of stretches that our last Manager would’ve reeled off a 6 or 7 game losing streak.
After the next four game tilt against San Diego in Atlanta, Toronto and Baltimore are up next. Those aren’t exactly easy outs.
The point here is that two weeks ago it looked like this “west coast swing” would be a respite from an arduous and pressure packed Washington series. That couldn’t be further from the truth.
No two-week period in June will be deterministic with regards to the total of a full MLB season. But they can dictate what shape or form a team is in heading into the All-Star break. It means something.
With the series loss in San Diego, these next 14 days just got very interesting. And, dangerous.