As potentially devastating as Jason Heyward’s broken jaw could be to the Braves if  he's not ready for the postseason, they might at least be breathing a little easier after seeing Jordan Schafer reassert himself in the leadoff role the past few games, after he'd struggled following a five-week DL stint.

  Schafer had three hits, two RBIs and two stolen bases in Wednesday’s 3-2 win against the Indians, making him 5-for-12 with one walk, one strikeout, three RBIs and a couple of runs scored in the Braves’ past three games, all wins.

  This comes after the speedy outfielder went 3-for-34 in his first 10 games back from the DL, with no extr-base hits, no RBIs, three walks and 12 strikeouts. The Braves were 5-5 in that stretch, including 0-3 in the first three games with Schafer batting leadoff after Heyward’s jaw got pulverized by a Jonathon Niese fastball.

   “He can do a lot of stuff,” Fredi Gonzalez said after Schafer had a double and a triple in the Braves’ 5-2 win in Sunday’s series finale at St. Louis. “He can beat you with the bat, with his legs, and defensively.”

   Heyward’s .994 OPS and Schafer’s .821 OPS rank first and fourth among the 29 NL hitters with at least 75 plate appearances from that spot in the order.  Heyward is the leader by more than 100 points above the NL’s next-highest (Cincinnati’s Shin-Soo Choo’s .889).

   Before his five hits in the past three games, Schafer had been 1-for-23 in his previous seven games, and I asked him Sunday morning if the DL stint had taken a toll on him, if he was still trying to get back in a groove.

  Before he missed more than a month for a stress fracture near his right ankle, he had hit .312 (39-for-125) with 11 extra-base hits (two triples, three homers), a .399 OBP and .464 slugging percentage in 61 games.

 “It definitely has something (to do with it), the time away,” he said Sunday morning. “Because beforehand, it was like I had that feeling where I knew kind of what I was doing, like I could feel what point I was trying to get to. But it’s getting closer now. Even (Saturday), the ball to to center was hit good. The ball that the shortstop dove and caught was hit good. So it’s not like I’ve had terrible at-bats. I just ran into some bad luck and I’m trying to get things back to where they’re comfortable.

   “It’s just hitting the ball where it’s pitched. Just trying to get back to where I was before, just getting that feeling back. I can feel it getting a little bit better each day. It’s just a matter of time. I’ll be all right.”

 Then he went out a couple of hours later in that Sunday game and led off the first inning with a triple, then hit an opposite-field, ground-rule RBI double in the second inning that would’ve driven in two runs if it had stayed in the ballpark.

  After that Sunday game, Schafer said, “Yeah, I’m getting close. I’m still not there yet, but it’s getting close. I’m starting to get some timing back. It’s kind of me just having like a calm, slow intensity, where I can slow everything down but can still be intense at the plate. Once I can get that back, I’ll be fine. I just need those at-bats.”

  Two games later, he had three singles and a walk, reaching base four times as the Braves won their third in a row to even their record at 3-3 since Heyward’s injury.

  They’ll probably have to make do without Heyward for most or all or the remaining regular-season games, and it’s not a certainty that the big right fielder will be back for the postseason, although Heyward said that’s his goal and that he intends to do everything he can to make sure it comes to fruition.

  In the meantime, having Schafer back in a groove in the leadoff spot is crucial, because the Braves struggled mightily at that No. 1 spot in the lineup whenever he wasn’t manned by Heyward or Schafer. With either of those two sparking the offense, the whole thing just runs differently. The engines hum, instead of sputtering as they did frequently when the Braves tried to fit a square peg (i.e. Andrelton Simmons) into the round hole of the leadoff spot.

  Heyward sizzled with a .341 average (30-for-88) and .414 OBP in the leadoff spot, and his six doubles, five homers and 15 RBIs from that spot gave opposing pitchers a whole different challenge than what they’re accustomed to seeing from a leadoff hitter.

  While they are not the overwhelming numbers that Heyward produced atop the order, Schafer has hit .277 (28-for-101) with a strong .365 OBP from the leadoff spot.

  Besides Heyward and Schafer, the other four hitters who had as many as 10 at-bats in the leadoff spot this season are Simmons (61-for-275, .222 average, .259 OBP), B.J. Upton (11-for-55, .200 average, .290 OBP), and Jose Constanza (4-for-18, .222 average, .222 OBP).

  Among NL batters who’ve had at least 90 plate appearances in the leadoff spot, Heyward and Schafer rank second and sixth in leadoff OBP, while Simmons’ .259 leadoff OBP is last in the league. Only Choo (.423) ranks ahead of Heyward in that category.

  And to think, when the Braves claimed Schafer off waivers from the Astros last fall, the general reaction from many of us was: Why?

BRAVES LINEUP Thursday

1. Schafer rf
2. JUpton lf
3. McCann c
4. CJohnson 3b
5. Terdoslavich 1b
6. Uggla 2b
7. BUpton cf
8. Simmons ss
9. Medlen rh

  • Playing for home-field advantage: Entering Thursday’s games, the Braves (80-52) are the only major league team with 80 wins, the only team with a winning percentage above .590 (.608), the only team with as many as 45 home wins (46-18), and the only team with fewer than 23 home losses.

  They also hold tiebreakers over the Dodgers, Cardinals, Pirates and Reds for home-field advantage in the NL playoffs should they finish with the same record as any of those teams. Now all the Braves need to do is make sure they finish wht the same or a better record than any team in the NL, and they’d have home-field advantage through the NLCS (the  AL champion will have it for World Series, because of the inane rule by which the All-Star game determinds WS home-field advantage).

  Anyway, the Braves are 38-13 with a 2.60 ERA in past 51 home games, including 6-1 with a 2.19 ERA in past seven. In those past seven home games, they’ve hit just .229 and totaled 26 runs, with half of those runs coming in two games and seven coming in the lone loss (8-7 loss against Nats).

  In that 6-1 home stretch, the Brave have won games by scores of 3-1, 3-2, 2-1, 2-0 and 3-2. On the one hand, that might seem a bit alarming, all those low scoring totals. But on the other, that’s typically the type of scores teams can expect to see in the NL playoffs, where the level of pitching is ramped up.

  The Braves just need to make sure they’ve got a trio of starters healthy and on top of their game when the postseason begins, and of course do everything they can possibly do to keep the majors’ top-rated bullpen healthy and relatively fresh for the postseason. Which isn’t as easy as it might sound, when you consider you can’t just shut down your key relievers or use them only a few more times apiece between now and them.

  Because not only would you probably be sacrificing the home-field advantage, you’d also risk sputtering into the postseason and having some relievers who aren’t as sharp as they’d been when they worked on pretty much a regular schedule and workload throughout the season.

  A couple of relievers to keep an eye on: Luis Avilan, after allowing only 11 hits (.106 opponents’ average) and no earned runs in 31-2/3 innings over a span of 35 appearances through August 14, has allowed seven hits and three earned runs in his past seven appearances. That includes five hits and two earned runs in 2-2/3 innings in three appearances over the past four days.

  And David Carpenter, after posting a 1.55 ERA and .195 opponents’ average over a 37-appearance stretch through Aug. 22, has allowed six hits (and one run) in two innings over his past three appearances. Opponents are 6-for-11 against him in those three games.

 • The Chronicles of “Dirty C”: Craig Kimbrel stats need embellishment or qualifiers. They are borderline absurd.

  No, they are absurd.

  For instance, since the beginning of the 2012 season, Kimbrel has exactly a 1.00 ERA and .143 opponents’ average in 118 appearances, allowing 58 hits, 13 runs and 31 walks with 196 strikeouts in 117-1/3 innings over that period. He has 84 saves in 90 opportunities over two seasons.

  Kimbrel has converted 32 consecutive saves in 41 appearances since May 9, a span that’s seen him post a 0.22 ERA with 59 strikeouts and 14 walks in 41-1/3 innings.

  And here’s one for the home folks: When those LED-simulated flames and “Welcome to the Jungle” fill Turner Field upon his entrance to a game, here’s what he’s done since mid-May 2012: 59 home games, 0.62 ERA, 25 hits (.126 opponents’ average), 58-1/3 innings, four runs, 12 walks, 100 strikeouts.

  • Batting race: Chris Johnson has only hit .256 (21-for-82) with a .279 OPB in his past 21 games, but does have three homers and 18 RBIs in that span, including Wednesday night’s walk-off hit. That made him 9-for-20 in his career against the Indians, with two doubles, one homer and six RBIs in five games.

   Cardinals catcher Yadier Molina is 17-for-47 (.362) with seven doubles, two homers in 11 games since returning from DL, and leads Johnson by four points (.333-.329) for the NL batting-average lead, with Andrew McCutchen third at .323.

   • Gattis update: Evan Gattis has hit just .185 with three homers in his past 37 games, including 20-for-100 with one homer, a .245 OBP, a .265 slugging percentage and 10 RBis in his past 29 games. He’s 0-for-16 with one walk and five strikeouts in his past seven games and hasn’t played since striking out in a pinch-hit appearance Friday at St. Louis.

    In case anyone was wondering, Gattis isn’t hurt, according to Braves manager Fredi Gonzalez. I checked today to make sure before writing this.

    Despite his recent struggles, Gattis still leads major league rookies with 47 RBIs, and is second with 15 homers (Jedd Gyorko 16). Yasiel Puig – you may have heard of him? -- is third with 13 homers and at least that many teammates and Dodgers coaching-staff members perturbed.

  • Today’s matchup: It’s Kris Medlen against Indians veteran Ubaldo Jimenez (9-8, 3.95).

  Medlen is 4-2 with a 3.60 ERA in his past six starts, including losses against Washington and at St. Louis in his past two starts. He gave up three runs and six hits in six innings of Friday’s 3-1 loss to the Cardinals.

  He has the same records (5-6) at home and on the road, despite having a 3.04 ERA in 13 home games (12 starts) and a 4.39 ERA in 13 road starts. The Braves scored no runs while Medlen was in the game in five of his six home losses, and one run while he was in the other.

  He’s 5-0 with one no-decision in the six home games when the Braves scored at least two runs while he was in the game.

  Jimenez is 6-5 with a 2.91 ERA and .239 opponents’ average in his past 16 starts, with 86 strikeouts but a whopping 51 walks in 89-2/3 innings. He’s lasted fewer than six innings in 10 of his past 14 starts, despite throwing more than 100 pitches in 10 games during that span.

   An indicator of his early exits: He’s had only four opponents’ at-bats all season in close-and-late situations (basically the seventh inning or later of one-run or tied games).

   Jimenez is 2-4 with a 2.27 ERA in six starts since the All-Star break, despite 20 walks (39 strikeouts) in 35-2/3 innings. For the season, he has an ERA that’s exactly 1-1/2 runs lower on the road (3.23) than at home (4.73).

    The righty is 5-3 in 13 road starts, despite allowing nearly three times as many homers (11) on the road than at home (four) in only five more innings.

  Jimenez is 3-4 with a 3.78 ERA in eight starts vs. Braves, including 1-2 with a 4.13 ERA in four at Turner Field, one of them quite memorable.

  He  threw a six-walk, seven-strikeout no-hitter in Atlanta on April 17, 2010. In his other seven starts against the Braves, he’s lasted more than six innings just once, and that was 6-2/3 innings. Jimenez has pitched 5-1/3 innings or fewer in half of his eight starts against the Braves.

  Brian McCann is 7-for-22 against Jimenez, while Dan Uggla is 3-for-12 with two homers, and Justin Upton is 5-for-23 with two homers. Jordan Schafer is 0-for-8 with two walks and six strikeouts against him.

 • Let's close with a gem from the great Joe Ely, which you can hear by clicking here. By the way, I was married for six years to a Colombian woman, and she never spoke Spanish to me. (Well, except in anger.) That's a true story.

“SHE NEVER SPOKE SPANISH TO ME” by Joe Ely

Met her in old mexico
She was laughing sad and young
In a smokey room no-one could see
All the poets they agreed
Spanish is a loving tongue but
She never spoke spanish to me

She was born in Monterey
And all the Christmas songs were sung
The padre knew what she'd grow up to be
Saints and sinners all agree
Spanish is a loving song
But she never spoke Spanish to me

Like a lion screamin in the jungle
She never
She spoke to all the shadows in her bungalow
But she never spoke Spanish to me.

She said "If you're from Texas,son,
Where's your boots and where's your gun?"
I smiled and said " I got guns no-one can see!"
She laughed at that and both agreed
Spanish is a loving tongue but
She never spoke Spanish to me.

I left her in old Mexico....