Snitker, Schwellenbach Give Key Reason to Be Optimistic About Braves

Following Memorial Day weekend, the Atlanta Braves sit just below .500 (25-27) and in third place in their division. It's not where they want to be, and the outside noise pushes to remind them of that. However, Braves manager Brian Snitker and starting pitcher Spencer Schwellenbach provided a reminder of one thing: Time is still on their side.

"We got 100-plus games left. This is a team of fighters and a lot of really good players," Schwellenbach said. "We know we should be in every game and win every game. We have all the confidence in the world that we're gonna play better baseball."

Snitker felt good about the fact that they're still in the race and they haven't reached their ceiling yet.

"We got a lot of time for things to get really good," Snitker said. "You know, we're OK where we're at. Everybody wants to be .500 and everything, but there's so much baseball left. We're not gonna win the division in May. We're not gonna win it in June. We're not gonna win it in July. I'm encouraged that we haven't played our best baseball yet, and we're hanging right in there."

To be exact, the Braves have 110 games left heading into Tuesday. Only in the COVID-shortened, 60-game season would it already be over for them. Check that. Even in the 82-game seasons the NHL and NBA have, it's also probably over for them. However, this team is taking the mindset of "it ain't over 'till it's over" and white-knuckling it because they can.

Unless you're the Colorado Rockies or Chicago White Sox, this is a sport where you're guaranteed 60 wins and 60 losses and the other 42 games are up to you.

The Braves have a sizable gap between them and first place (eight and a half games) with a more manageable five games separating them from a Wild Card spot. At this point in the season, if they get going, they can start to chip away at that without much to sweat about. Even just winning two of three against the Phillies to get one game closer would do a lot during the marathon that is an MLB season.

What is also encouraging is that they made it this far before getting Ronald Acuña Jr. and Spencer Strider back. They've won one of five games these two have played so far, but the sample size is small. Wins will start to fall into place the more they're in games.

Time plays into this reason too. They have the time to win games with them in the lineup/rotation because of how early both came back. Strider went on the injured list a second time and still came back with over 100 games to go.

They still have to prove it. If they're still sitting at .500 at the start of August, to use a song by AC/DC, it's a long way to the top. Even then, they've called that child's play and gone a run at the eleventh hour just this decade. They have the talent to do it. It just has to finally click.

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