Consecutive series wins over the Milwaukee Brewers, Colorado Rockies and now the New York Mets, who began Wednesday with the best record in the National League.
An offense that has been coming through when games are on the line.
The apparent return of the slumping closer.
Dare we ask?
Is it actually happening?
After playing so far below their standards through the first third of the season, are the Braves finally going on their long-awaited run?
Wednesday night at Truist Park, after the Braves clinched their three-game series with the NL East-leading Mets, a certain bearded designated hitter decreed it is indeed so.
“We’re around the corner to getting on fire and winning games every single day,” Marcell Ozuna told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
The Braves secured their home series over the Mets with a 5-0 win before a crowd energized first by the appearance of first-pitch thrower and bobblehead model Usher and then by ace Chris Sale’s masterpiece.
The 36-year-old vexed the New Yorkers with his slider and fastball, the former looking like it was hydroplaning across the strike zone and the latter absolutely pinpoint in its execution.
The Braves faced a Mets team that was in dire need of a win, having lost four in a row, including a gut-punch 10-inning defeat to the Braves in Tuesday’s series opener.
But the Mets could do nothing against the home team. The Braves have now won six of their last eight games after losing their previous six series and seven games in a row, the final five by one run each.
Going back to the awful start to the season, the possibility that the Braves were finally finding their stride has been raised after every glimmer of hope, only to be dashed by a slumping offense or leaky bullpen.
But, in mid-June, the Braves maybe, could be, possibly be lifting off in the midst of a critical stretch against NL East opponents.
Sale went so far as to declare that the Braves have momentum, which to this point had avoided them as though they were infected with cooties.
Said Sale, “When you play good baseball, you just keep playing good baseball.”
They did it again Wednesday. Ronald Acuña Jr. led off the bottom of the first by laying waste to the first pitch for a 419-foot home run, his mind-boggling eighth homer in his first 82 at-bats of the season after returning from his ACL tear. The Braves led 3-0 by the end of the first.
Sale was on top of his game, limiting the Mets to five hits and coming one out shy of his first complete game since 2019. Shortstop Nick Allen continued his dazzling defensive play. Matt Olson hit his 15th home run and extended his on-base streak to 19 games. After a slump had evicted him from his closer role, Raisel Iglesias came in for the final out in relief of Sale for his fourth consecutive scoreless appearance.
“That’s the kind of feeling we’re trying to get back,” Ozuna said.
From June 9 – the day after they lost their seventh game in a row – through Tuesday, the Braves were hitting .320 in high-leverage situations. The season average was .238.
“I feel really good about what we’ve been doing lately,” manager Brian Snitker said. “It’s starting to come around with more than just one guy, I think. What we’ve been striving for a long time now, so hopefully we’re going to get in a groove where we’re kind of passing the baton and keeping the thing moving and being more like what we’re capable of.”
The Braves can sweep the Mets Thursday night when Spencer Strider opposes the Mets’ Clay Holmes. If the Braves were to do it, it would be their first series sweep since taking three in a row from Minnesota in April, which was so long ago you could see the glaciers receding from the press box.
That’s followed by a road series against Miami, four games in New York against the same Mets and then three at home against Philadelphia. If the Braves are indeed getting hot, it’s a most opportune moment.
And there’s reason to think that the offense has another gear to reach. The Braves might have seen a hint of it when second baseman Ozzie Albies, whose batting average (.223 before Wednesday) is practically see-through, tripled and doubled in his first two at-bats.
Yes, qualifying for their eighth consecutive postseason remains a big ask. After Wednesday’s win, the Braves were still an unimpressive 33-39. They were six games out of the final wild-card spot and 11 games back of the division-leading Mets.
But, on June 8, after getting swept by the Giants in San Francisco and appearing all but done, they were 9.5 games out of the last wild-card spot and 14 out of first place in the NL East.
Maybe?
“That’s a really good team right there when you look at those guys,” Mets manager Carlos Mendoza said of the Braves before the game. “We knew from the beginning right before the season, we knew there were going to be three teams fighting for the division. They got out of the gate slow but when you look at that roster and the pitching staff, they’re really good.”
In a month, or maybe in just a week, this all may look like prescient prognostication or merely several hundred words of naïve hooey.
But at least it’s gotten more interesting.
“It’s like everyone is on the same page right now,” Ozuna said. “We’re playing a lot more, and then God is on our side. When God is on our side, we can see the results.”
Walking with the Lord or walking with the bases loaded – the Braves would do well to keep doing both.
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