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It’s time for the Atlanta Braves to catch the Mets

By Alan Carpenter

The light is green and it's time for the Atlanta Braves to go forward. (Photo by Alexander Sayganov/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)
The light is green and it's time for the Atlanta Braves to go forward. (Photo by Alexander Sayganov/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images) /
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Atlanta Braves
It’s time for the Atlanta Braves to have a few more celebrations like this. (Photo by Adam Hagy/Getty Images) /

Timing is everything in baseball, and for the Atlanta Braves, the schedule is set up for them to finally make a big move forward.

Normally when the Atlanta Braves hop on a plane to head out West, it’s time for the fans to grit their teeth and hope the team can somehow eke out a win or two before coming home.

This time, things might go differently… and they need to go differently.

Starting today and going through most of the month of June is “go time” for the Braves.  Here’s the shortcut reasons why:

  • With a gap of 8.5 games between the Mets and Braves, Atlanta truly can’t afford to fall behind much further… even as we’re still just under 1/3rd of the way into the season.
  • The schedule is favorable for the Braves for the next 3 weeks
  • The schedule is against the Mets for the entire month

Let’s start with the Braves schedule…

ARIZONA – 3 GAMES IN PHOENIX

The Diamondbacks started poorly, but rallied strongly until about May 10th, as part of a 2-out-of-3 series against Miami.  After that game, they were 17-14 overall.

Since they, they have dropped 12 of their last 18 contests, beating only the Cubs and Royals in that span.

They come home licking their wounds after a 4-game sweep at the hands of the Dodgers, who also swept them in a 4-game set from May 16-18.

COLORADO – 4 GAMES IN DENVER

The Rockies always seem to be a club that can beat anybody at home, but that hasn’t been happening lately.

After a big start early, this team was 15-10 after beating Washington on May 7th.  Since then?  Disaster.

The Rockies are now 6-16 in their last 22 games after dropping 3 of 4 to those same Nationals.  They’ve been giving up some big numbers in many of these games as well.  12 of their last 14 losses have seen their opponents score 5 or more runs.

With Kris Bryant on the shelf — and his back will exclude him from the Braves series — that takes away one of their key offensive weapons.  If Atlanta can keep C.J. Cron in the yard, then most of the remaining lineup has to manufacture their runs.

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