Braves Come Up For Air In Late May
Here we are, entering Memorial Day weekend, and some in the baseball world are looking at the Atlanta Braves franchise and saying " It's alive!"
Yes, the Braves have been above .500 for two days in a row at 24-23. ( though yesterday was an off- day)
Recall the the Braves stumbled badly out of the gate, not just losing their first seven , but looking bad while doing it. Throw in the long-term mysterious injury to number three starter Reynaldo Lopez, the one start-and--re-injured return of Spencer Stryder and the out of nowhere loss of new LF Jurickson ( "I- would-never-willingly") Profar for 80 games for PED use , and some Braves fans were ready to torch Brian Snitker, toss in the towel and hope for a better 2026.
Well, now, just hang on and hang in, because this is baseball we're dealing with– the most democratic game of them all. Where the best teams win 6 of 10, the worst win 4 of 10 ( except Colorado), and they are all- ALL- prone to streakiness.
Given those circumstances, baseball is these days a game of survive- and- advance. Just make the playoffs (as 12 of 30 teams will) and hope for good health and good fortune when October rolls around.
Those factors make a crummy start mean less. Far less. Pre- 1969, only two teams met post-season. Starting in 1994, the leagues expanded to three divisions each, and added a wildcard team to fill out four -team brackets to identify the league pennant winners. In 2012, the pool was further expanded by adding another wild card team for each league, and having the two wild card teams play as a preliminary round to determine which team would advance to the now " second round" of the playoffs. ( Hockey format is right around the corner)
But the Miami ( nee Florida) Marlins had already shown the baseball world that division titles are unnecessary to capture the grand prize. In 1997 and in 2003, the Marlins advanced as a wild card team to win rhe World Series. And they've still never won their division. Why bother?
Going the other way, the Braves won 14 straight division titles, but won the Series only once in that stretch – in 1995. They lost it in '91, '92, '96 and 2000 and did not make it past the division Series those other years.
All that is to say, the first week of an MLB season is about as relevant to the outcome as the fisrt few steps of a marathon. In other words, irrelevant. If you fall on your face as the gun is fired, just get up and get going.
And now, with the season not yet 1/3 complete, the Atlanta trails the Mets by 4.5 games and the Phillies by 5. The Braves have already taken a series ftom Philly, winning 2 of 3 in April. They have 10 games left vs Bryce and the Boys.
Atlanta will play the Mets 13 times before the season is over. Nuff said! Plenty of opportunities! I predict the Mets will again this year find more ways to be Amazin'.
And the front-runners now have have some bad luck of their own. Philly closer Jose Alvarado ("hey, check out my speedier new fastball") just got his own 80 game sit- down for PED use.
And in NYC (well, Queens) Mets fans are wondering aloud how many more millions of dollars it would take to prompt Juan Soto ( call me 765M ) to run hard for a full 90 feet on a grounder. Bad vibes.
Meanwhile, in Atlanta, things are looking up. Stryder is back today to re- begin his 2025 season. And Ronald Acuna is lurking in the minors , with his return to Atlanta lineup imminent . So all you Snitker- haters calm down. All you linguistic wannabes quit mocking our diminutive infielders ( Albies and Allen) and the names in our bullpen (Bummer and Blewett). To all you would- be third base coaches who know you can out -coach Coach Tui, I say" Ptui!" Stay in your seats.
It ain't over yet. No sir, we are a looong way from the finish line. And the Braves are ALIVE.
Patrick Conarro RamblinSports.com