Braves Trying to Stay in the Race

Leading 4-2 in the bottom of the ninth last Thursday, the Braves called on Rafael Soriano to close the game out. But with the top of the Dodgers order up, I knew instantly in my gut things wouldn't turn out right. Three batters later, Andre Ethier sent a Soriano offering over the right field fence giving the Dodgers a 5-4 win, seemingly putting a fork in the Braves playoff chances. But baseball is a funny game of ups and downs, and three days later, with the help of clutch hitting and excellent pitching and defense, the Braves had swept the final three games of the series against the National League's best team. Now entering tonight, the Braves find themselves just 4 1/2 games behind the division leading Phillies and four games out in the wild card race. And knowing the Braves will be getting better with the return of Omar Infante and of Tim Hudson in a couple of weeks, it's realistic to think they may have a shot at the playoffs with 50 games left. But that can all evaporate quickly. There's a big series this weekend when the Phillies come to Turner Field, but first the Braves must take care of the Washington Nationals. The Nationals have played better against the Braves than just about anybody else, taking 16 of 27 dating back to 2008. And earlier this year, when the Braves jump-started their stretch of better baseball by sweeping the Phillies at home, they turned around and lost two of three in Washington. And now they face an improved Nationals team that has currently won eight in a row and is under the leadership of a new manager in Jim Riggleman. Given the Braves up and down tendencies and their incompetence when it comes to the Nats, I'm still not holding my breath on the Braves making a serious run. They could just as well be out of the race at the end of the week. Eighteen of their next 22 games are against the National League East, and now they may have a better shot at the division than the wild card. But either way, they need to continue hitting consistently, and they need to win the games they're supposed to. Otherwise, they'll be another disappointment. It starts tonight.