Hopefully, the off day did help them out a bit because Brian Snitker’s Atlanta Braves needed it.
All of the wonderful ball that the Atlanta Braves have been playing lately appears to be a distant memory. Atlanta was playing fairly well, gaining ground on the Philadelphia Phillies and others headed into this weekend’s series against the Miami Marlins. Well, after splitting the four-game series by losing the last two at home to the Fish, the Braves must pick up the pieces and put it together.
Atlanta is unlikely to catch Philadelphia in the division, but weirder things have happened in baseball before. What’s disheartening is when a team finally starts to improve, only to lose a few questionable games to a squad they should have beaten. Miami is also a professional baseball team with a lot of mature guys and pride, but Atlanta needed to take three of the four.
David O’Brien of The Athletic received this comment from Snitker, and it definitely sets the tone for this week.
“Glad we have an off day tomorrow so that we can get rid of this one, take a couple of showers. Because we were playing so good coming into this series, and won the first two games. Every time you get a foothold or something, you get smacked in the mouth and you’re right back having to get ‘er going again.”
Snitker is resilient, I’ll give him that. What has been frustrating for Braves Country this season, aside from not being able to watch half of it on Bally for Xfinity reasons, is that we keep hearing signs or glimmers of hope that this team will turn on the switch and we will all be able to enjoy winning Braves baseball again. The difficulty with such logic is that I am not certain there is a switch.
Brian Snitker’s off-day message is not what Braves fan needed to hear
I get that this was in divisional play on getaway day in some ways, but you need to secure your home better than this. Miami is usually fierce, but you must take advantage anytime this perennial rebuilding club comes to town. The fact that Philadelphia has allowed the Braves and the New York Mets to into the divisional competition astounds me. Every victory must be earned through hard work and determination!
Even more worrying, Sunday’s 7-0 loss to the Marlins was Max Fried’s first start since returning from the IL. Fried has been unstoppable at times. Then there are start times like Sunday afternoon for him… Regardless, you want everyone to be pulling in the same direction at this stage of the season. Not to say the Braves don’t want to do it, but nothing has come easily for this squad.
The good news is that Atlanta created a large enough cushion during the early part of the summer that, absent an unexpected collapse, the Braves should still be a playoff contender. It may only be a first-round exit in the NLWCS, but I suppose being in the postseason is preferable to sitting at home on the couch, watching the game and wishing you were there. The Braves actually let a few of games slip away.
The Braves are running out of time to put it all together and show us what this team is made out of.
