Happy Mother’s Day, and if you’ve forgotten to call your mom, or hug her if she’s near by, maybe all the pink bats and wrist bands worn in the Braves game today will remind you.

As I just left the visiting clubhouse in Pittsburgh, Jarrod Saltalamacchia - who’s getting the start today at catcher - was getting bullied into wearing pink, mostly pink, catching gear.

Andruw Jones started it with taunts of “Salty if you love your mother, you gotta wear it.” Other voices around the clubhouse chimed in. Eventually Salty went over and reluctantly pulled the pads out of the box and had a look. A few more taunts later, he was carrying it out to the field for batting practice.

And who thought peer pressure was tough only in the seventh grade? But hey, it’s for a good cause, helping to raise awareness and money for breast cancer research. (www.komen.org/mlb if you’re so inclined.)

So it’s Sunday and I’m blogging anyway, not to be outdone by DOB’s latest weekend efforts. And on a beautiful, little bit chilly morning in Pittsburgh, a couple thoughts come to mind.

The Braves can’t seem to lose - even with Chipper Jones on a shelf for a couple games, closer Bob Wickman on the disabled list, and with their fourth, fifth and sometimes frankly third spots in their rotation being trouble spots.

Chuck James flirted with a no-hitter last night against the Pirates. Kyle Davies pitched a dandy on Friday (seven innings, one hit in a 4-1 win) and if Anthony Lerew pitches today anywhere as well as he did his first major league start against the Padres, the Braves are in business.

The Braves have won a season-high five in a row and they finally picked up a game on the New York Mets, who lost to Ben Sheets and Milwaukee Saturday 12-3. The Braves entered Sunday’s game with a 1 ½ game lead on the Mets, their biggest lead since they were up 2 games on April 11.

The Mets have won seven of their last 10. From the looks of it, this NL East race is going to be hot. And stay that way.

I asked Jeff Francoeur about the Mets yesterday and his response reminded me that this is a new age of Braves baseball. The streak of 14 division titles ended last year and so did pressure to focus on winning the division. This batch of young players is hungry for the playoffs, whichever way they get there. If using the Mets to get ahead of the rest of the National League pack, so be it. Francoeur actually acknowledged the W word: Wildcard.

“At the end of the day you want to win the division but if you can get that big lead too in the wildcard (standings) it’s huge,” Francoeur said. “I think for me and a lot of these guys, we just want to make the playoffs. It’d be great to win the division. No doubt. But we want to get to the dance. And we feel we have a good team, whether we win the division or the wildcard, where we can make some noise later.”

Francoeur isn’t conceding anything to the Mets, but he’s also taking a realistic approach if you ask me. Use the race with the Mets to get in position for the wildcard too. Win, win.

What do you guys think? Can the Braves two-out hitting frenzy and solid bullpen and Tim Hudson and John Smoltz domination get the Braves past the Mets, their killer lineup and better-than-advertised pitching staff? Or might it ultimately be moot in a way.

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