Atlanta Braves: The Path to the Postseason in 2020

As we enter the final month of the 2020 season, let’s take a look at what it will take for the Atlanta Braves to reach the postseason.

With MLB expanding the postseason to 16 teams during this whacky 2020 season, they’ve made it pretty easy for teams like the Atlanta Braves to get in.

But the Braves still have to get the job done, and despite all their injuries and failures in the starting rotation they enter September with an easy path to the postseason.

The Braves enter action Friday night with a record of 22-14 and have a 2.5 game lead over the Philadelphia Phillies in the NL East.

Philadelphia is certainly charging hard and looks like the best team in the division, but winning the division isn’t that huge of a deal this year with the expanded postseason.

The eighth seed in the National League right now is the Colorado Rockies with a record of 18-19.

There’s a good chance we have a playoff team get in with a losing record, or at best they’ll be a game over .500.

So I’m guessing that in order to get into the playoffs the Braves will need to win at least 31 games.

That means they just need to win nine of their last 24 games, or essentially, they can go 9-15 the rest of the way and still make the playoffs.

And when you consider that the Braves schedule is much easier in September, and hopefully they’ll be getting healthier, the path to the postseason seems pretty clear.

They end the season with three more games against the Boston Red Sox who they just swept at Fenway Park.

In fact, entering play on Friday night, every team left on the Braves schedule has a record of .500 or worse. Miami is 16-16, but everyone else they play the rest of the way is below .500.

For the Braves not to make the postseason at this point would take an epic collapse on their part, and I just don’t see that happening with the schedule they have in September.