If the Braves are going to threaten the Nationals in the National League East race, this week would be a good time to start.
The Braves (40-42) travel to the nation’s capital for a four-game series before the All-Star break. The meetings could go a long way in determining what course the Braves take at the July 31 trade deadline.
Washington (50-34) sits nine games up on the Braves entering Wednesday’s games. That cushion is even greater over other East adversaries.
The Mets, while playing better as of late, have floundered after once being considered the Nationals’ primary competition. The Marlins are pondering a rebuild, while the Phillies seem perpetually stuck in theirs. All of them sit at least 11 1/2 games back.
Enter the Braves, who've found new life despite star Freddie Freeman missing 44 games. The Braves have won 16 of their past 26 games, and five of their past six series. Freeman is back in the fold — at third base, in case you hadn't heard — and the team built momentum heading into the All-Star break.
“I think we’re in the right position,” Freeman said. “When I went down, I think we were 8 1/2 games back, and when I came back we were 8 1/2 games back. We’re right where we need to be, especially with this four-game series with the Nationals coming up this week. So we can hopefully close the gap a little bit more.”
The July schedule is a gauntlet. The Braves play at SunTrust Park just eight times in the month. The team faces the currently playoff-slotted Nationals, Diamondbacks and Dodgers. It also sees the defending champion Cubs and the Phillies, who’ve defeated the Braves five of seven meetings this year.
“We know the next series are big ones for this whole season,” Freeman said. “We really got a tough, tough schedule coming up in the next three weeks. So we need to play our best baseball and hopefully continue what we were doing in June and carry that over to July.”
The Braves have had much better luck in close games as opposed to a season ago. They carry a 23-18 mark in one-run games in 2017, a notable improvement from last year’s 36-43 record. They’ve won a major league-leading 14 games in their final at-bat.
There are justifiable concerns regarding the team’s consistency. Matt Kemp has cooled off, hitting .184 across the past five series. Matt Adams is no longer the hottest hitter in the NL. Jaime Garcia has regressed to the mean. Julio Teheran can’t figure out how to keep balls from sailing into the Chop House in home starts.
And yet, while the team has a losing record, it’s still in the race. The Nationals have been hit by injuries and what might be the worst bullpen in the majors, halting them from slamming the East’s door shut.
If the Braves drop three of four in D.C., it could be enough to pivot the franchise into a motivated seller. Otherwise, the organization may want to give it more time with Freeman back in the lineup. The best, and perhaps only, way the Braves can make the East race interesting is through winning head-to-head contests with the Nationals.
“It’s a huge series,” said Braves pitcher Mike Foltynewicz, who starts the series opener Thursday. “We knew this going out to the west coast, you know, that the week and a half leading up to it was going to be huge. Even if we can split this series, it’s going to be huge. Obviously we want to win all of them, but even to split, stay with them, all the wild card stuff.
“But right now we’re playing good baseball. We’ve got great team chemistry in here, we’re in a lot of the games, we’re fighting and it’s a fun environment in here and I think that’s what’s really keeping us rolling into the break. So it’s going to be a fun series.”
The Braves have aggressively promoted their minor league talent during the rebuild, but have leaned more conservative with major league moves. General manager John Coppolella added Brandon Phillips and Matt Adams at modest prices to keep these Braves competitive, but there’s questions as to when he’ll dip into the deep end.
The Braves have long had interest in adding a top-of-the-rotation starter, and names such as Sonny Gray of the Athletics and Jose Quintana of the White Sox surely will pique their interest again. A move of that magnitude likely will be delayed further if this week goes poorly.
The Braves are still rebuilding, but as Milwaukee and Minnesota are proving, it’s possible for a retooling organization to unexpectedly jump into contention. The Braves have reached the point of the process where they must balance variable current fortunes with sustainable success.
July holds the temporary answers to those questions. If a surprise postseason berth is in the cards, this Braves club will have certainly earned it.
