As sweet as the past 16 games have been for the Braves, who won 12 of them, taking two of three from the Phillies over the weekend in Philadelphia might have been their biggest lift yet.
The Braves won a series against their NL East nemesis for the first time since last July and narrowed their division deficit to 3 1/2 games. They return to Atlanta for an eight-game home stand starting Tuesday night against the Nationals.
“We don’t want to give them a lot of room to breathe and run away with it,” said pitcher Jair Jurrjens, who beat the Phillies 5-2 in Sunday night's deciding game “Every series we have to try to take something away from them.”
The Phillies come to town on Friday for another three-game showdown. The Braves know they can’t look past teams like the Nationals and lose the ground they’ve made this past weekend. But they’re also not shying away from the importance of opportunities against the Phillies.
“We’re going to have to make some headway against them head-to-head in order to catch them in the standings,” Braves third baseman Chipper Jones said,“because it doesn’t seem like many other teams outside of this division beat them at all.”
The Phillies, 22-11 overall, are 13-7 against teams within the N.L. East and 9-4 against teams outside the division.
The Braves have the benefit of playing the Phillies six times in nine games when they’ve built their best momentum of the season.
In a little over two weeks, the Braves have matched up with some of the best teams in the National League and held their own. They swept the defending World Series champion Giants in San Francisco to start this 12-4 swing.
They dropped two of three to the NL Central-leading Cardinals, but held late-game leads in each of the two losses. They rallied to win the final game of that series with their first walk-off win of the season to start a season-high, six-game winning streak.
The Braves arrived at Citizens Bank Park on Friday as high as they’d been all season.
The one constant over the past 16 games for the Braves has been starting pitching. Braves starters have 14 quality starts in those games and two complete games, while going 9-0 with a 2.10 ERA. The Braves’ pitching staff, as a whole, has a 2.35 ERA in that time.
Tim Hudson threw a one-hit shutout. Derek Lowe flirted with his second career no-hitter. Jurrjens is 4-0 with a 1.50 ERA since coming off an oblique injury, including three wins in the past 16 days.
Dominant starting pitching has allowed the Braves offense a little breathing room to find its own stride.
“We got ambushed quite a bit early in games early in the season and got the offense a little behind the 8-ball when we were struggling offensively,” Jones said. “Now the staff is giving us an opportunity to get a couple innings under our belt, a couple ABs to try and get something against an opposing pitcher.”
The Braves have also played some of the best defense in baseball this season. Shortstop Alex Gonzalez leads all major league shortstops in fielding percentage (.994) and is second in assists (116). He suffered a slight groin strain Friday night in Philadelphia, but, with an off day Monday, expected to return to action Tuesday or Wednesday against the Nationals.
With a base of good pitching and defense, the Braves can build their offense around timely hitting. The Braves lead the majors in batting with runners in scoring position, hitting .324.
New second baseman Dan Uggla has weathered his usual April slump and showed signs of breaking out in May. Nate McLouth has put last year's struggles behind him and found a comfortable niche producing from the No. 8 spot, where he’s hitting .396 with a .525 on-base percentage.
Jones has had only one bad day with his surgically repaired left knee in a seamless return from ACL surgery, spending much of April reaching career batting milestones in hits and RBIs.
“We’ve done what we had to,” Jones said. “If we needed to beat somebody 3-2, we’ve done it. If we’ve needed to shut somebody out, we’ve done it. Hit homers? We’ve done it. If we needed to strike out 16 times and get 12 hits (to beat Cliff Lee), we’ve done it. It can be done a bunch of different ways.”
