AJC > Sports > Braves > Blog > Archives > 2006 > July > 25
Tuesday, July 25, 2006
Surging Braves bring act home
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
In the midst of the Braves’ 3-20 skid about a month ago, I spewed forth a cavalcade of negative statistics to underscore just how far they had fallen and how dire their situation appeared at the time.
Well, they’re 17-8 since the 10-game losing streak that ended that 3-20 run, and have ridden an offensive eruption to an NL-best 13-5 record in July, while passing more than half the teams that were ahead of them in the wild-card standings.
They still have several concerns with the pitching staff, including the perplexing mediocrity of Tim Hudson, who’s pitching like a No. 4 or No. 5 starter and not a No. 1 or No. 2, and the continued inconsistency of the bullpen.
The ‘pen still could use a veteran lefty _ Ray King? _ to complement Macay McBride and possibly another setup man _ Scott Linebrink’s possible, but I wouldn’t give up Betemit for the Padres veteran, who has blown leads in the past two games _ to assure a strong bridge to new closer Bob Wickman.
The Braves have been winning despite the pitching staff, for the most part, rather than because of it. Their 5.02 ERA in July is 11th in the NL.
That said, they are winning. And no one is hitting like the Braves. No one.
They just finished a 7-2 trip that included series wins at San Diego, St. Louis and Philly, following a 7-3 homestand leading up to the break. Now the Braves are home for six games against a Florida team that’s 10-11 in its past 21 games, but is coming in with a couple of awfully good young starting pitchers _ Anibal Sanchez and Josh Johnson _ in the first two games, and the Mets. Oh, the Mets.
Every time the Mets show any sign of cracking and slipping a bit, they gather themselves and produce a couple of overwhelming wins that remind everyone how small the chances are of them folding and the Braves winning a 15th consecutive division title. To me, there’s still almost no chance of that happening.
But as I’ve said, the wild card might be the best option for the Braves anyway, because for once they will be pushed all the way to the wire and go into the postseason _ if they make it _ playing their best ball, not on cruise control for most of September as they’ve been in recent years.
They were never out of the wild-card race, as much as many local and national pundits might have insisted they were. So much for all that talk from some about how many wins it would take to get to 90 (as if there were some minimum-wins requirement for the wild card) and how the Braves simply couldn’t play to the level required to pass all those teams ahead of them.
It was paralysis-by-analysis, or would’ve been, if the Braves had listened and believed it. But they didn’t. They just went about trying to win each series.
A month later, they’ve won seven of eight series since losing seven series in a row. And they are 4-1/2 games behind wild-card leader Cincinnati, with San Francisco and Arizona between them and the Reds.
Even if there were only a month to play, the Braves would stand a decent chance of catching and passing those teams. But there are more than two months left. Ample time if they keep playing good ball _ and I don’t mean the absurdly high level the offense is performing at since the break.
Just good baseball. They need better pitching, and hitting somewhere between what they were getting before and what they’ve gotten lately, though probably more toward the latter.
Anyway, in the interest of equal time, we offer some of the more impressive stats this Braves team and its individuals have put up recently:
_ The Braves have hit three or more homers in nine of their past 17 games, after hitting one homer or fewer in each of the previous 15 games.
_ They’ve hit .326 with an absurd 45 homers during their past 17 games (13-4), have scored 100 runs during their current 9-2 run, and amassed 33 homers in their past 10 games.
_ In the NL, only the Reds (141) have hit more homers in the NL this season than the Braves (138), and the Reds play in a bandbox derisively referred to as Great American Small Park.
_ The Braves lead the majors with 46 homers in July, 15 more than next-most in the NL (Cardinals) and 10 ahead of AL leader Chicago.
_ The Braves lead the majors in average (.328), OBP (.388) and slugging (.607) in July. Arizona (.300) is next among NL teams in average, and Cleveland (.508) is the only other team in the majors slugging higher than .490.
_ The Braves have three of the NL’s top six RBI men in July, including Andruw Jones (league-best 23) and Chipper Jones and Brian McCann (20 apiece).
_ They have four of the NL’s top 12 home run hitters in July _ Chipper Jones (7, despite missing past two games with strained oblique), and Andruw Jones, Adam LaRoche and Brian McCann (6 apiece).
_ Chipper Jones leads the majors with a .526 July average and has hit .512 (42-for-82) with eight homers, 24 RBIs and a gaudy 1.509 OPS during his current 20-game hitting streak.
_ Adam LaRoche has shrugged off early criticism and hit .352 (31-for-88) with eight homers and 19 RBIs in 22 games since June 24. The first baseman ranks third in the NL in road RBIs (44) behind the Mets’ Carlos Beltran (55) and Andruw Jones (54), and LaRoche is tied for sixth in road homers with 15, behind only Carlos Lee (18), Beltran (17), Albert Pujols (16), Andruw Jones (16) and Aramis Ramirez (16).
_ Versatile Wilson Betemit has hit .358 with four homers and 13 RBIs in 53 at-bats over his past 16 games, including 13-for-37 (.351) with three homers and 11 RBIs while starting the last eight games of the just-completed trip. Trade interest has risen sharply in Betemit, but he might be too valuable for the Braves to deal, given recent health issues of Chipper Jones and Marcus Giles.
(On the other hand, if the Braves could make a deal for Giles, Betemit has proven he can handle the leadoff role and second base the rest of the season, or Martin Prado could be brought up to play second and Betemit could continue moving between spots, long as he keeps getting regular playing time).
Giles, by the way, is 2-for-12 with eight strikeouts in three games since injuring his thumb, including the extra-innings game in which he injured it in the first inning at San Diego and kept playing, and his first games back Sunday-Monday at Philly (1-for-7, five Ks).
_ Jeff Francoeur has quietly (if that’s possible for Delta commercial star) hit a solid .315 with five homers and 22 RBIs in his past 29 games.
_ Edgar Renteria has hit .395 with a .465 OBP in July, three homers, 24 runs and 12 RBIs in 18 games.
_ All-Star Brian McCann keeps doing what he does, batting .368 with a .420 OBP in 58 games since April 21, and for tons more power since his knee improved over the All-Star break. He has six homers and 20 RBIs in July, including a stunning five-homer, 13-RBI five-game stretch during the trip.
_ Rookie Scott Thorman has hit .358 (13-for-83) with four doubles, four homers and nine RBIs in July, after batting .111 (3-for-27) with one double and one RBIs in June, his first month in the majors.
There are others, too. But I’m running out of time and this blog has gotten way too long for some of your tastes, I’d imagine.
Keep in mind, the pitching staff still is a concern, and we realize the hitting can’t continue like this (it’s already cooled a bit in the past week, though the power still was in abundance at Philly’s small park).
All that said, it’s been a rather remarkable one-month turnaround.
Services »
