The Atlanta Braves finished off a nice home-stand, excluding the meltdown against the Washington Nationals, as they swept the Houston Astros after being dominated by Wandy Rodriguez for 8 innings. They rallied behind a pinch-hit home run by Brian McCann and a two-run home run by Brian McCann (redundant isn’t it) in the 11th inning to sweep the Astros 3-1.
The Brave now hit the road for a 7 game road swing that takes them to Arizona for two, Los Angeles for three against the Angels and back to Pittsburgh for two. Looking at the Braves’ schedule for the rest of May and June, it becomes increasingly evident that the Braves need to make a serious move right now. The schedule has opened up for the Braves to do just that.
Over the Braves’ next 13 series, spanning 38 games, they play only five teams with a winning record. The combined record of the eleven teams that they play (they play the New York Mets and San Diego Padres twice) is 201-214 which is a winning percentage of .483. Excluding the Cincinnati Reds, Florida Marlins, Toronto Blue Jays, Los Angeles Angels and Texas Rangers, the other 6 teams are a combined 87-120 with a winning percentage of .420. Realistically, the only two teams that have played all that well so far in May and June are the Reds and the Marlins. The Blue Jays have won six straight games.
There is no way that I am saying that the Braves will have it easy in inter-league play. That is a tough adjustment due to the unfamiliar hitters, pitchers and ballparks that will be played in. But, the reality is, the Braves have a fairly easy schedule over the next 38 games. July becomes more difficult as they will get the Orioles, Rockies and Phillies heading into the All Star break. Then, they get their achilles heel Nationals, Rockies, Marlins and Reds again. July will be a tough month for the Braves.
The Braves are sitting in a pretty good spot. They are trailing the Marlins by .5 games and the Phillies by 1.5 games. They have to take care of business now as their schedule is favorable for a strong May and June. Their pitching has been outstanding all season, but their hitting has been suspect. That has changed over the past 20 games, as hitters have broken their early season slumps. They still have two big-time hitters that are proverbial sleeping giants (Jason Heyward and Dan Uggla). Both Uggla and Heyward have struggled for extended periods of times, but both are two hitters that can do a lot of damage quickly when they get hot. Signs are pointing to them breaking out of their slumps, but they still haven’t broken out at this point.
The Braves should take the momentum that they have built up and punish the sub-par competition that they will face over the next 6 + weeks and hold their own against the better competition and take the lead from the Marlins and Phillies. They have done an amazing job at this point absorbing the mounting injuries, now that they seem to be getting healthy again, they should continue their surge.
Original Story:
http://www.tomahawktalk.com/2011/05/i...
