Atlanta Braves Morning Chop: Almost What The Doctor Ordered

Are you on the bandwagon yet?  It seems that home is the place where all ills are cured – that and having the Padres there to entertain for the weekend.

Our Atlanta Braves are now 5-6 after a 1-6 start that could only be described as sloppy.  Some of those losses were given away due to all kinds of reasons – defense, offense, bullpen… you name it.

But at SunTrust Park, almost all of those miscues seem to have gone away.

It started in Miami last Wednesday, but the momentum has continued.  The Braves now stand 15th in all of MLB in team WAR and have a .260 team batting average, good for 8th place overall.

That’s despite having been stifled by the Mets and Pirates and being a National League club… yes, even the pitchers have been helping out.

There still are flaws and issues

Dansby Swanson is down to a .146 average.  Adonis Garcia is at .167 despite his wall-cresting homer on Saturday.  At this point, the club is relying on the timely hitting of Ender Inciarte, Nick Markakis and Brandon Phillips.

If we can get Swanson going, that would look a lot better.  Plus there’s the big fella…however…

Just as we’re about to get Matt Kemp back, Tyler Flowers looks to be out of action for perhaps a week or more with the same injury.  So it looks like we’ll see more or Kurt Suzuki and Anthony Recker over the next several days as I cannot imagine rushing a catcher back from a hamstring issue.

As good as the starting pitching has been – 6th in baseball in ERA at 3.47 – the bullpen is still trying to make up for its poor first week with isolated issues (mostly that’s Chaz Roe and Ian Krol right now).

Luke Jackson was called up a couple of days ago, and it’s unfortunate that Brian Snitker hasn’t had quite enough wiggle room to allow Jackson to get his feet wet.  Yesterday’s 9-2 final would seem to have been the time, except that Atlanta scored all runs from the 5th to 8th innings, including 3 to seal the deal in the 8th.

Don’t Look Ahead Just Yet

It’s tempting to start thinking about the Nationals series coming up tomorrow evening.  But before that, the Braves really need to finish this 4-game set by sweeping the Padres.

But the Nationals are a mere 7-5 and despite having to face Scherzer, Ross, and Strasburg, a win tonight would put the Braves in a much rejuvenated and confident mood … never mind getting to .500 with a 6-6 record going into that set.

April finishes with turns against the Nats, Phillies, Mets, and Brewers.  Then the schedule kicks things up a notch in May – probably their toughest month of the year.

In May that calendar calls for the Mets (yes, again!), Cardinals, Astros, Marlins, Blue Jays (home-and-home), Nationals, Pirates, Giants, and Angels… ending with a trip to California.

29 games, 16 of them in Atlanta.

The farmers’ slogan is that you make hay while the sun shines.  The Braves thus  need to cash in wins against teams they should beat whenever they can.

That began on Wednesday.

But for all the problems stirring under the surface – and they are still winning – we don’t need to see everything fixed to continue this nice streak that they are on.

Here’s your Happy Easter Sunday box score: