The Braves are back in familiar territory: first place in the National League East. In a year where seemingly everything has gone wrong, they are positioned for a postseason spot with 44 games remaining.
Behind their scorching-hot offense, the Braves swept the spiraling Nationals in Washington this weekend. While they were beating up on one of baseball’s worst teams, the Phillies dropped two of three to the Reds, vaulting the Braves into first place. The Mets, who sat atop the division for three months, must defeat the Dodgers on Sunday night to avoid falling to 2-1/2 games back.
The Braves were 7-1/2 games back in mid-June, when they were 30-35 and selling at the trade deadline was an increasingly interesting proposition. They were four games back at the All-Star break, but losing superstar Ronald Acuna for the remainder of the season was a loss many felt would end the Braves’ faint hopes.
Six trades, an 18-game stretch of alternating wins and losses, and a 10-2 hot streak later, the Braves are in the driver’s seat for their fourth consecutive division title. There’s a lot of baseball left, but not many envisioned the team working its way into this scenario. The trades proved valuable, the core pieces of the lineup have caught fire and the pitching — particularly the rotation — have rounded into form.
FanGraphs’ postseason odds, which haven’t been kind to the Braves throughout the season, now give the team a 43.6% chance of winning the NL East, the best odds in the division. It’s important to remember the tired baseball cliche: The season is a marathon, not a sprint. And as other teams seem ready for a breather, the (anything but) slow-and-steady Braves are passing them by.
