Atlanta Braves Morning Chop: Coming Back, But Not McCann

The Atlanta Braves have won three of their last four matches – and tied the fourth – winning 8 of their last twelve games.  That even pre-dates the Kemp deal (4-2 since then).

It could be general streakiness, but there are several hitters that are suddenly in the groove – name Ender Inciarte, Erick Aybar, Adonis Garcia, Nick Markakis, Anthony Recker, and even Freddie Freeman.  All of them are hitting .300+ over the past two weeks, and thus there’s an offensive surge going on that’s protecting sometimes-shaky pitching.

• In those 8 recent victories, the run-scoring has been:  6, 13, 5, 8, 2, 2, 9, 2
• In the 4 defeats?  0, 3, 5, 5

As they try to track down the Marlins and Dodgers for Wild Card positioning, certainly the Pirates and Cardinals both are annoyed at having lost 2 of 3 apiece to the Braves.

For their part, Atlanta (41-70) now doesn’t necessarily look to be a lock for that 1st overall draft pick in 2017.  They sit 4 to 4-1/2 games behind a logjam of teams at 45-65 and 44-66:  Arizona (!), Minnesota, Cincinnati, and Tampa Bay.

Oddly enough, all but the Diamondbacks have been playing well themselves lately.  But as cream rises to the top, the dregs will sink to the bottom, so while the Braves did improve themselves at the deadline, none of these other clubs did… thus it could get close in this last 51 games.

Next: Notes From All Around