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Home > Mark Bradley > Archives > 2008 > July > 01
Tuesday, July 1, 2008
July 1 could be turning point for Braves
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
About those 14 division titles: Didn’t at least four come when the Braves weren’t the most talented team?
“Yes,” Chipper Jones said.
And if the Braves could somehow finish first this time, wouldn’t 2008 trump all the others — 1999 when Andres Galarraga and Javy Lopez were lost; 2001 when both the Mets and Phillies seemed more robust; 2004 when the Braves were under .500 on the Fourth of July; 2005 with all the rookies — for improbability?
“Yes,” Jones said. “Having the injuries we’ve had, yes. I said before the season the one guy we couldn’t lose was [John Smoltz], and we had him for what, one month? [Mike] Hampton hasn’t pitched, and [Tom] Glavine’s been gimpy, and now I’ve been out.”
The coming of July found the Braves three games under .500 and four games behind Philadelphia, which arrived at Turner Field on Tuesday. This isn’t where the Braves thought they’d be when they broke camp, but it beats the heck out of where they ought to be, which is in the vicinity of the Washington Nationals.
Jones again: “Back in February, if you’d projected all the things that were going to happen to us, you’d have said, ‘If that team doesn’t lose 100 games, it’ll be a decent year.’ To hold it together this long is a tribute to Bobby, to Roger McDowell and to some young pitchers.”
In a season where so much has gone wrong, something big went unexpectedly right Tuesday. On a day when it was believed Jones would land on an overstuffed disabled list, he arrived for work and, wonder of wonders, pronounced himself fit to play.
“I woke up yesterday and did the quad stretches that had been hurting,” he said, speaking before the game, “and they didn’t hurt anymore. I’m about 85 percent now, so there’s no sense going on the DL. In fact, I’m lobbying to get in there right now.”
Maybe we’ll remember July 1 as the day an unfortunate season began to turn. Mark Kotsay exited the DL, and Jones dodged the dreaded list and talked his way into the starting lineup. The game itself wasn’t half as cheery — the Phillies chased Charlie Morton in the third and Blaine Boyer in the ninth and won 8-3 — but these past five weeks have been so bleak that any glimmer of light seems a new dawn.
Said Jones: “I don’t know how everybody else feels about it [his return], but I’m pretty excited.”
And if you’re the three NL East teams ahead of the Braves, maybe you’ll look back in September and curse what might have been. You let an opponent of such pedigree linger at your peril, and pedigree is about all that has kept the Braves this close.
“No other team that has gone through what we’ve gone through health-wise would be in the same position,” Jones said. “I know people say the NL East isn’t a good division, but it’s not that bad. It’s really even … We’ve got parity. And I’m glad we do. Otherwise we’d have gotten our doors blown off.”
It’s July. Doors have been buffeted but remain intact. The Braves should be 10 games out but are half that. If guys follow Jones’ lead and get healthy, who knows what this team could do?
Here’s one thing the Braves do know: Better health must be followed by improved performance. “We’ve got a shot, absolutely,” Bobby Cox said. And then this: “But we’ve got to win some of these types of games.”
Seventy-eight games remain. That doesn’t sound like very many, but it might just be enough.
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