Josh Donaldson 3-run homer helps Atlanta Braves avoid the sweep

The Atlanta Braves salvaged the final game of their series with the Colorado Rockies, winning 8-7 and ending an eight-game home losing streak to the Rockies.

Let’s all just exhale for a moment. The Atlanta Braves rallied from two runs down in the eighth inning, thanks to Josh Donaldson’s two-out, three-run home run, and avoided what would have been their second straight home sweep by the Rockies.

Of course, the game was not without bullpen drama.

A.J. Minter, who blew the save the night before, allowed back-to-back singles by Charlie Blackmon and Trevor Story to open the inning.

After retiring Daniel Murphy, Brian Snitker made the right call and went to the ever-reliable Luke Jackson to face Nolan Arenado and David Dahl.

Jackson got Arenado to fly out to left and Dahl grounded out to Jackson and the Atlanta Braves made up for the disaster that was Saturday night.

Ozzie Albies hit two homers, Freddie Freeman added another, which meant he has reached base safely in 27 consecutive games.

Starting pitcher Kevin Gausman was underwhelming, as he blew a 3-0 first inning lead when Daniel Murphy hit a three-run homer. More on him below

While the results suggest otherwise, the bullpen was again a disaster. Also more on that below.

Anyways, a win is a win, and with the rest of the division stalling out, the Atlanta Braves are right in the mix.

On to the takeaways from Sunday’s game:

1. Enough of the sarcasm

I, like many Braves fans, love to take cheap shots or jabs at the Braves ownership/front office for not addressing the bullpen this offseason.

There has been hot take after hot take about the Atlanta Braves bullpen over the season’s first few weeks.

I get it, I really do.

But allow me to look at this from an unbiased view, or as close to it as I can.

There have been countless numbers of stories, posts, and tweets about the Braves bullpen woes.

In fact, Jeff Schulz of The Athletic wrote something (paid subscription required) that came out Sunday morning about Alex Anthopoulos essentially being forced into a move based on Minter’s meltdown Saturday night.

There is no way after how he has performed recently Minter should be closing games.

Yes, there is nobody on the roster who can do it, but then it’s time to mix and match during the latter portions of games, because Minter, whose ERA is around 9.00, is not the guy.

No matter how much potential he has, Chad Sobotka should not be on the big league roster.

He came in today, had Story down 1-2 in the count and proceeded to plunk Story in the back.

While his stuff is enticing, the results are lacking.

Thomas Burrows or Grant Dayton need to be on this roster, if nothing else to give someone else besides Sobotka or Jesse Biddle, who was put on the IL Saturday, a chance.

2. What to think of Gausman?

Kevin Gausman’s first start of the season against Miami was impressive, but since then he has allowed 16 earned runs in 23 innings.

Much like some of the folks in the bullpen, Gausman has the stuff, but the results over his career have not lived up to the hype.

Now, I don’t think Gausman is going anywhere anytime soon, but if some of the younger pitchers emerge, then he and Julio Teheran might be moving on.

3. The rest of the East

I don’t want to sound like that guy, because I can very much see how flawed this Atlanta Braves team is.

But the division isn’t exactly lighting the world on fire and two of the teams, the Phillies and Nationals, are dealing with the same bullpen issues as the Braves.

So while losing is not any fun, and being below .500 is not where anybody thought the Braves would be at this point, they are one hot streak away from first place.

I guess I did sound like that guy, huh?