The Atlanta Braves dropped the series finale to the Washington Nationals 9-4 Sunday afternoon, but still took three of four in the series and are nine games up in the NL East.
Despite the loss on Sunday afternoon, it was mission accomplished for the Atlanta Braves in their crucial series with the Washington Nationals, as they won the series and moved closer to defending their division crown.
Now with a nine game lead in the National League East, the Braves’ magic number to clinch the division is 13 and that number can be downed significantly with a good week at Philadelphia and Washington.
Not much to the takeaways today, but there were some noteworthy performances.
Worried about Soroka?
Mike Soroka allowed four earned runs against the Nationals, which makes 17 earned runs allowed in 44.2 innings since the beginning of August.
That makes for an ERA just under 3.50 in that span, but he does have 32 strikeouts to eight walks.
Since he surpassed his career high in innings Sunday, one has to wonder if there is some fatigue setting in.
It will be interesting to see what Brian Snitker does with Soroka and Max Fried once the Braves clinch a playoff spot.
Re-Joyce!
Matt Joyce hit a home run and a double off Max Scherzer Sunday, which moved his batting average in games he starts to .360.
In 28 starts this season, Joyce has seven doubles, five home runs, 15 RBI, 17 walks and 16 strikeouts.
Joyce’s production takes some of the pressure off the Braves in the event that Ender Inciarte is not ready to go in the NLDS.
And if Inciarte is ready, then Joyce can be a weapon as a pinch-hitter.
Home field over everything
After Sunday’s games, the Braves were still 3.5 games behind the Dodgers for home field in the National League, though recently trends have brought the teams closer. After August 15th’s games, for example, the margin was nine.
There has been some discussion on social media about would the Braves rather be the No. 1 or No. 2 seed in the playoffs.
In the 1st round, the #1 seed gets the winner of the Wild Card game. Currently that would be the Cubs or Washington. The #2 seed would play the NL Central winner – currently St. Louis. Both are 5-game sets.
The Braves have proven they can play with anybody, so home field advantage should be the ultimate goal, no matter the opponent.
With their 17-3 record in over the last 20 games, the Braves have firmly put themselves in that mix.
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