The Braves will hope their latest homestand doesn’t haunt them in late September.
This group has always ceased the bleeding in their surprising route to first place. They’ll need to do so again over the next 10 days, likely with the deck stacked against them.
Hosting a pair of last-place teams, the Braves botched an opportunity to extend their hold in the National League East’s pole position in the six-game homestand. They lost two of three to the Orioles and Reds.
Cincinnati, which entered the series having won seven in a row and exited having won 12 of 15, took advantage of a leaky bullpen.
“Another one of those teams that we caught while they were hot,” starter Sean Newcomb said. “We didn’t play up to our capabilities 100 percent; you’re not going to every day. I know we’re going to come back out at St. Louis and be pretty strong, pitching and offensively.”
The Braves have three in St. Louis, three against the Yankees and four in Milwaukee on the 10-day trip. The Cardinals are entrenched in the NL playoff race and chasing the Brewers in the Central, who owned the league’s best record entering Thursday.
As for the Yankees, their 52 wins would be good for first place in any division besides their own and the AL West, where Boston and Houston own 54 wins.
It will be the Braves’ final three-city road trip of the season, and likely the most challenging.
“It’s a tough road trip,” manager Brian Snitker said. “It’s probably as tough a road trip as we’ve had all year coming up, 10 days.”
The “crashing back to earth” crowd will feel validation after the past week. The bullpen appears more than one piece away from being just reliable. And that still wouldn’t solve the offense’s trouble with runners in scoring position, though the lineup will be strengthened by Ronald Acuna’s return in St. Louis.
The bullpen will be addressed, likely with multiple transactions (internally and externally). But general manager Alex Anthopoulos committed to a patient approach. One homestand of misdeeds isn’t shifting a season-long plan.
But change is growing necessary. The bullpen produced a 5.46 ERA, walked 14 and blew three leads against two of the worst teams in the league. The starters' inability to go deep in games hasn't helped, but it shouldn't absolve all the blame.
“I mean, the bullpen’s taxed, we’re getting guys on and having a hard time in the productive-outs situations,” Snitker said.
That said, the Braves are still in first place. The Phillies have gained only one game in the standings over the past 10 games. Washington has managed to fall behind an additional two games.
“We didn’t know what to expect,” Anthopoulos recently told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution of his team’s expectations. “We knew there was a lot of talent here. ... They all should be really proud of what’s going on here. We knew there was a lot of talent and the plan was just to sit back and let these guys plan, maybe add some things, bring some information.”
Anthopoulos likely didn’t anticipate a need to change the sit-back philosophy by July, but that may well be the case. He’s tasked with balancing win-now moves with retaining the youth that preceded him.
That, in part, is why the team will approach the deadline with a patience many playoff contenders cannot afford.
While working in the Dodgers’ front office last season, Anthopoulos and his cohorts swung a deadline deal for Texas ace Yu Darvish. But their acquisition was shelled twice, including in game 7, helping the them lose the World Series. Darvish departed for the Cubs in free agency.
The Braves are on a different timeline than that Dodgers team, and they won’t feel the pressure that group did. But with their play leveling out to more .500-level recently, the difference in the East might be a single transaction before Aug. 1.
The Nationals struck quickly on that front, acquiring rental reliever Kelvin Herrera from Kansas City to solidify their bullpen. But with June coming to a close, the team holds a losing record at home (19-20), and Bryce Harper has looked anything but an MVP.
As was the case with the 2017 Dodgers, Washington is operating within its window. The NL is wide-open, and Harper is approaching free agency in the winter. The Braves are in the fortunate position where riding it out might not be the worst result, whereas for the Nationals it’d have been inexcusable.
Philadelphia, like the Braves, is new to the whole “contending” concept after years of rebuilding. The Phillies are 10 games over .500 at home, but four under on the road.
The Braves and Phillies will face off in seven of their final 10 games. Those could represent an early start to the postseason, but both have to get there first.
And a successful road trip – even going 5-5 against the coming array of contenders – could ease the pain of a missed opportunity at SunTrust Park. Revisiting that homestand after missing the playoffs by a game or two would be a tough pill to swallow.
“You’re going to do this, it’s going to happen,” Snitker said of the underwhelming homestand. “We’ve played three months of the season and this is really the first kind of grind-type thing team-wise that we’ve been through. And you’re going to go through it; everybody goes through it. We’re not going to be immune to it.
“It’s going to happen. Like I say, we ducked it for three months, it’s been really good. But you’re going to have to fight your way through this kind of thing. We’re not different than any other club, and we’ll be fine. We’ll take a day off and come back out grinding again on Friday.”
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