The Atlanta Braves are scuffling. Losers of their last five games -- their longest such streak since 2017 -- and boasting a losing record dating back to the start of May (16-20), it's been tough sledding. Despite that, the team is still in a strong position to achieve its ultimate goals.
Make no mistake, the Braves have been in terrible shape going back over the last 43 days of baseball.
Ahead of Thursday's afternoon game with the Baltimore Orioles and dating back to the start of May, the team (yes TEAM) is averaging only 3.4 runs per game and is slashing .221/.284/.366 while striking out 8.4 times per game.
"Say what you want, the Braves heads are above water," Drew Butler said on Thursday as he was filling in for Steak Shapiro. "But of course they have much higher expectations."
As of now, the Braves are still the top team in the Wild Card race and control their own fate there. That's because -- besides the three division leaders in the Philadelphia Phillies (46-21), Los Angeles Dodgers (42-27), and the Milwaukee Brewers (40-28) -- the rest of the National League is largely scuffling, too.
But that can be a double-edged sword for a team like the Braves, because that means finding a potential trade partners becomes all the more difficult.
"There are seven teams in the National League, alone, that are one-and-a-half games out of the Wild Card," Butler continued. "So who's your dance partner?"
"Nobody's out of it enough to start wheeling and dealing with the mastermind that is Alex Anthopoulos," Sandra replied. "You have to let them play themselves out of [this slump] because you really don't have much of a choice."
Maybe the Braves won't catch fire in time to catch a streaking a Phillies team that has extended their division lead to double-digits but with 97 games left to play this season, all of their goals still remain in front of them.
Now, they just need to start hitting the ball again.
