The standings have always provided solace for the Braves when things looked bad this season. They’ve never dropped below the cutoff for the third National League wild card. Since the Phillies passed the Braves in the NL East, they’ve been in the top wild-card spot for all but one day.
If that’s the worst it can get for the Braves while playing poorly, then they’d be in great shape if they could ever get on a roll. That’s what’s happening now.
After the Braves won four of six games on a road trip, they returned to Truist Park on Thursday and beat the Marlins 4-2. I know what you’re thinking. The Braves have had good weeks before but couldn’t sustain it. It’s hard to trust they’ll score enough runs to win consistently. Another injury always seems to be lurking.
But the good run feels sustainable this time. The schedule is getting lighter. Soon, the injury list should be shorter. Matt Olsen has joined Austin Riley in slugging as expected. The pitching has remained strong even with Max Fried (forearm) missing three of his turns in the rotation.
And another good reason to believe the Braves can keep winning is they are slugging again. They homered three times against the Marlins Thursday. That makes 21 home runs in the past seven games. Nine different players hit those homers. Riley and Olson homered in the first inning on to stake right-hander Charlie Morton to a 3-0 lead.
It’s looking like old times lately for the Braves, who tied the MLB record last season with 307 home runs.
“When the guys are on, that’s how we score, right?” Morton said after the Marlins scored zero earned runs over six innings against him. “Yeah, sure, we have guys that are good ‘bat to ball’ guys, plenty of good hitters. But when they are being themselves there’s power there, there’s pop.”
The Braves lost a season-high six games in a row last week. They recovered to win five of their next six. The Braves have three more games here against the struggling Marlins (40-69). Next week they’ll host the Brewers, who lost two of three games to the Braves in Milwaukee last week.
The Braves have hung in there despite the weak offense and long injury list. The increasing rate of home runs signals that they can do more than that.
“It would be nice to string together some other things every now and then,” manager Brian Snitker said. “But, you know what, if not, if we are going to start doing that, it’s good.”
Credit: Miguel Martinez
Credit: Miguel Martinez
I’ve always believed the offense would get going eventually. My confidence in that prediction admittedly was starting to waver.
Olson and Sean Murphy were producing offense well below their career standards. Orlando Arcia was producing well below MLB standards. Ozzie Albies wasn’t doing much at the plate before he got hurt.
Now Olson is hot. He was 7-for-26 with four home runs and four walks during the trip, then homered in his first at-bat back home. Murphy is 6-for-20 with two walks and a homer in his past five games. After scuffling for the first two months, Riley compiled a .881 OPS from June 1 through July 31.
The top of the lineup is stronger after the Braves traded for outfielder Jorge Soler on Tuesday. He’s a big offensive upgrade in the outfield. Snitker is batting Soler leadoff, followed by Riley, Marcell Ozuna and Olson. That’s a strong group if Olson’s offensive awakening is real, as it seems to be.
The bottom half of the order will get a big boost if Murphy can raise his .678 OPS to something close to his career .770 OPS. Arcia is finally heating up. He’s hit safely in 12 straight games (14-for-40) and his home run on Thursday was the third in his past five games.
The Braves are trending in the right direction as the competition level drops. After playing the Brewers, the Braves will embark on a nine-game trip against three teams that were a collective 140-187 to begin Thursday. The pitching staffs of the Rockies, Giants and Angels all rank bottom five in MLB for fWAR.
The Braves expect to get heathier soon. Fried is throwing bullpen sessions. Reynaldo Lopez avoided an IL stint for forearm soreness and could during this homestand. Center fielder Michael Harris II (hamstring) is projected to return in about two weeks.
The cushion the Braves created by starting 19-7 is holding up. The Padres, Diamondbacks and Mets all were playing better than the Braves for a time. Those teams are still below them in the standings. The Braves won a series at the Padres before the break. They spilt four games at the Mets last weekend.
Now the Phillies are in sight for Braves. They led the Braves by 10 games in the East on July 5. The margin is down to six games now. The Braves have 54 games left to play, with seven against the Phillies.
Winning the East seemed implausible less than a month ago for the Braves. It’s going to be tough for them to catch the Phillies. But the chances look better now. The schedule is softening, the team’s health is improving and the Braves are slugging again.
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