Atlanta Braves have to keep foot on pedal against Marlins

The Atlanta Braves have been able to fend off the recent surge by other NL East teams, but they can’t let up against the Miami Marlins.

One of the biggest fears of playing an inferior team with a young group of guys like the Atlanta Braves have, is playing down to the competition.

If you look at the Braves 10-2 record against the Fish this year you definitely wouldn’t get the notion that they’ve played down to the competition.

But a closer look at those games shows it has been a much more competitive series — mainly because the Marlins starting pitching staff is really good.

Six of those wins have come by two runs or less, and five of them were one-run wins.

On the flip side, the Marlins only two wins came by a combined three runs.

So of the 12 times these two teams have played this year, eight of those games have been decided by two runs or less, and half of them were decided by one run.

These haven’t been easy wins for the Atlanta Braves this year, and you hope it isn’t because they are letting up against lesser competition.

With the way the rest of the NL East is playing right now, you can’t afford to let up against teams like the Marlins.

The Atlanta Braves need to keep their foot on the pedal and pick up these wins against lesser teams because there aren’t a ton of them left on the schedule.

Let’s get into the matchups and see if the Braves can pick up a big four-game series win this weekend and hopefully pick up some ground on the competition.