Atlanta Braves Morning Chop: Shuffling and Getting Shuffled

The return of Bryce Harper gave the Braves no answer on Sunday to a relentless Washington team that got used to the weather and delivered some heat of their own.

So all three games in this series were played in 95ish degree heat with enough humidity to push the heat index into the 105-112 range.  Suppose you’re an employee of the Nationals and your job  is to don a large, confining costume and run a lap around the perimeter of the field.

Not only did that continue to happen this weekend, but there was also a ‘youth version’ of the Presidents’ race at one point this weekend.  The only equivalent of that I can think of is SEC team mascots early in the college football season or Disney World characters in Florida heat.  Brutal.

But the baseball players had to have fared poorly as well… Mike Foltynewicz was said to have needed the whole weekend to recover from the energy lost in his Friday evening start.

This was the first outright series loss for the Braves since the last Colorado series.  After a (well-timed) day off to recover, Atlanta finishes their odd 2-and-2 series with the Twins back at home just before facing the Nats again this coming weekend… this time for 4 games.

Nothing like supporting the confidence of young pitchers like facing a team twice in a row that you just had a shaky outing against.  Nothing like bolstering the confidence of a bunch of hitters, either.

Here’s your box score…

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