The Atlanta Braves are in the midst of a critical stretch of games as they stare down a potential trip to the playoffs. All season long, it feels like the bats have struggled to consistently produce runs. Now, with just five games left to go, has their misfortune finally started to turn in their favor?
To discuss what he's been seeing from the Braves' lineup as of late, The Steakhouse welcomed in the play-by-play voice of the Braves, Brandon Gaudin.
First, he discussed what has gone wrong for the team thus far.
"[The Braves] are going to have to be better situationally, and they have over the last week offensively," Gaudin told The Steakhouse on Wednesday morning. "There have been so many times this year where the Braves have had runners at second or third with one out or no outs and they haven't been able to get anything across."
That had to change with the arrival of postseason baseball and the looming reality of several tight ball games. There are going to be situations where they need to be able to steal bases, get that hit with two outs, or lay down bunts in an effort to score that critical extra run when the time comes.
One thing that has started to work in their favor as of late is the re-emergence of the home run ball and the timely clutch hit which served them so well last year when they had the best offense in baseball.
"The Braves have hit 20 homers over the last seven games, and they've also been much better at driving in runners when they're in scoring position with one or two outs," he said about the bats starting to heat up. "Now, seven games is a small sample size, I get it, but it's trending in the right direction at the right time, and hopefully it will continue.