3 Takeaways from Atlanta Braves’ series win vs. Cardinals

Nowhere to Hide

The Atlanta Braves have suddenly assembled a lineup to be reckoned with  – one that can actually match up with the elite teams in the majors.

This is what many of us (this writer included) were clamoring for during the off-season when we were looking for ‘1 more bat’… one more big threat in the middle of the order.

The surprising part is how this came to be.

Once Josh Donaldson was signed to play third base, my own thinking was “okay – Riley may not quite be ready… this covers 2019 for us.

I never expected the team to pull a ‘Kyle Schwarber‘ move and throw him into an unfamiliar position just to get his bat into the lineup.  But there he is.

Dansby Swanson has cooled in recent days, but is still striking the ball well.  Nick Markakis is maintaining and extend his own youth movement by reprising his 2018 start… which looked like his 2008 self.

Brian McCann and Tyler Flowers are both mashing the ball – McCann even turning on high-90’s fastballs.

At the moment, only Ozzie Albies is really struggling at the plate.  Thus there’s not a lot of places for pitchers to find outs in this lineup right now.

Can it last?  Well, the even better news is that with so many mashers available, you don’t have to have everybody on fire at once:  you can score from lots of different places.

Freeman almost never slumps.  Acuna and Riley both have ridiculous easy power to any field.  Donaldson can accidentally rip a ball anywhere since his swing is a weapon of its own.

There’s truly now no place to hide.

Now let’s see the Braves keep this in place for a while.