The Braves open a 10-day, nine-game road trip Friday that will see them play three far-below-.500 teams. It’s a stretch of schedule that should serve the Braves well in the tight National League East race.
The trip begins with a three-game series against the Washington Nationals this weekend, continues with three games against the Miami Marlins next week and concludes with three interleague games against the Baltimore Orioles.
Those three teams, all sellers at baseball’s trade deadline last month, entered play Thursday a combined 68 games under .500. Miami and Baltimore are in last place in the NL East and AL East, respectively, while Washington is next-to-last in the NL East. The Orioles have MLB’s second-worst record.
While the Braves visit those opponents, the two other NL East contenders -- the Philadelphia Phillies and New York Mets -- face more daunting schedule stretches, particularly the Mets.
Starting Friday, the Mets’ next 13 games are against the San Francisco Giants and Los Angeles Dodgers, the top two teams in the NL West and arguably the NL’s two strongest teams. The Mets will play the Dodgers in a three-game series in New York this weekend, then will go to the West Coast for series against the Giants and Dodgers next week. The Mets will return home to face the Giants again Aug. 24-26.
The Phillies, meanwhile, have a three-game series at home this weekend against Cincinnati, the second-place team in the NL Central, followed by road series next week at Arizona, which has baseball’s worst record, and San Diego, which has the NL’s fourth-best record.
“We’re getting to that time of year where I do catch myself looking at the out-of-town scoreboard, checking things,” Braves manager Brian Snitker said Thursday afternoon. “This time of year and going into September, you want to be relevant, you want the games to mean something, and you’re getting after it. So that’s the fun part of doing all this.”
The Braves, who were a season-high 7-1/2 games out of first place in the NL East on June 16 and five games out as recently as July 28, started Thursday in a first-place tie with the Phillies.
“It’s good, I’m not going to lie to you,” Snitker said. “You wake up, and the grind we’ve been through and what we’ve overcome and to see (the first-place tie) – that’s good. These guys … just take it a day at a time, and it’s good to see that their resiliency is paying off. We’ve got a long way to go, but it’s good to be sitting here ... tied for first.”
The Braves’ schedule stiffens after the coming trip as their next homestand includes two games against the New York Yankees (Aug. 23-24) and three games against the Giants (Aug. 27-29), followed by a three-game series against the Dodgers in Los Angeles.
Braves notes
-- Pitchers Ian Anderson and Huascar Ynoa -- on rehab assignments at Triple-A Gwinnett as they work their way back from shoulder inflammation and a broken hand, respectively -- started games for the Stripers in a Wednesday doubleheader. Anderson threw 64 pitches in three innings, allowing three runs on three hits with three walks and three strikeouts. Ynoa threw 83 pitches in 4-2/3 innings, allowing three runs on four hits while striking out seven and walking four.
“Both of them felt great,” Snitker said, but he had no update on when they’ll rejoin the Braves’ roster. Ynoa last pitched in a major-league game May 16 and Anderson on July 11. “Those two guys were really big for us over the course of this season, so it’ll be good to get them back,” Snitker said.
-- The Braves’ scheduled starting pitchers for the series in Washington are Charlie Morton on Friday night, Max Fried on Saturday night and Drew Smyly on Sunday afternoon.
-- As planned, Travis d’Arnaud wasn’t in the starting lineup for Thursday’s series finale against Cincinnati after catching 11 innings the night before in his first game back with the Braves from the injured list.
-- The Braves have won three consecutive series for the first time this season.
