It was one game in April, one game in a six-month season that — prognosticating boldly here — won’t be recalled as the greatest in Braves annals. It was a game we’ll have forgotten in three months if not three weeks. Still, it was a nice little moment.
On Tuesday, the Braves beat Alex Wood, whom they’d traded to yelps of protest last July. It was their fourth consecutive win after starting 0-9. The victory didn’t impel anyone to calculate magic numbers. As of Wednesday, they still held the second-worst record among big-league teams.
Still, 4-9 beats the heck out of 0-13. The Braves have shown a little life. They’re the same modestly appointed team, just with a more presentable record. If you’re the Braves and you’re poured the preponderance of your resources into seasons beyond this, you’ll take presentable.
Speaking before Wednesday’s game, manager Fredi Gonzalez said of 0-9: “We played good baseball; we didn’t get some breaks.” That was partially true: Of the nine losses, the Braves were tied or ahead late in five. But this was a particularly bad April to be unlucky, if that’s what happened, simply because we all expected this team to stink. When it did, we got to yell, “Knew it!” Then we changed the channel and threw the remote.
Contrary to popular belief, the Braves aren’t run by total idiots. They know what they’ve done — tearing down to build up — is never popular because, duh, it entails loads of losing. The Braves will never say this out loud, but they they don’t expect to pop champagne bottles in October.
They’ll settle — they’ll never admit this, either — for being semi-respectable, for being better than last season’s 67-95, for dropping enough hints of brighter tomorrows to keep the constituency interested. That would constitute success for the 2016 Atlanta Braves. (Meanwhile, the Rome Braves and the Carolina Mudcats will be doing the work that matters.)
The Braves are also aware that rebuilding in baseball is different from, say, basketball. Big-time NBA draftees become immediate starters. Timberwolves fans have gotten to see Andrew Wiggins and Karl-Anthony Towns develop. Unless you have season tickets for games in Zebulon, N.C., you’re not getting a daily look at Dansby Swanson. (Who’s hitting .333 with an OPS of .880.). The Braves don’t want to rush anyone, but they wouldn’t mind if Mallex Smith, here because Ender Inciarte got hurt, turns some heads.
Neither was it unwelcome that the Braves beat Wood on Tuesday. (Not that the Braves have anything against Wood. They like him as a guy.) They traded him to the Dodgers because they worried about his funky delivery and because they got Hector Olivera in return. To say the Olivera Experiment hasn’t reaped an immediate windfall is putting it mildly. The 31-year-old rookie hasn’t hit a lick and remains on administrative leave after his arrest for assault and battery in Arlington, Va.
Had Wood returned to Turner Field and two-hit his former club, it wouldn’t have been the end of the world. It would, however, have induced one or two folks to say, “We dumped this darn good Dawg to get the guy who’s done nothing except get arrested? Who’s running this club? George Costanza?”
Instead the Braves chased Wood after four innings and won 8-1 to make it four in a row. It was a nice moment in a season that began with nothing but frustration and failure. (Oh, and bad breaks.)
No, they’re still not a good team. They entered Wednesday’s game last in the majors in homers — they have three, the most recent coming April 10 — and third-worst in ERA. They’ll never be a good team. But they’re no longer winless, and they’ve strung together a few moments. From this farewell-to-Atlanta-Fulton-County season, moments will have to suffice.
