Atlanta Braves magic number continues to drop

On Monday night the Atlanta Braves inched ever closer to clinching a playoff berth with another win against the Phillies.

The Atlanta Braves defeated the Phillies 7-2 Monday night and in the process lowered the team’s magic number to 10. Let’s take a look at the takeaway’s from Monday’s game.

3. Facing these “Ace” Pitchers is a good thing

Over the course of the last two or three weeks, the Braves have had to face a pretty tough stretch of starting pitchers. Stephen Strasburg, Max Scherzer, Patrick Corbin, Hyun-Jin Ryu, Lucas Giolito, Jacob deGrom and the latest being Aaron Nola.

The good news is the Braves have fared very well against almost every single one of them.

Of course, when you have a division lead like the Braves have at this point, it’s just natural to look ahead and start planning for October baseball. Now, the Braves can look ahead with the confidence that this lineup can go toe to toe with any pitcher in baseball and be ready for action.

I stated last week that the Braves are being selective and driving the opposing pitchers pitch counts up early and often, and not only that, but when that pitcher is making a mistake, they aren’t  missing.

So in essence, the Braves should be fully ready for when the playoffs start. In fact, it could be argued that the Cardinals (who it looks more and more likely the Braves may play) don’t have a pitcher as good as any as the ones who were mentioned earlier in this article.

The timing of this great play, which has been buoyed by not only great hitting, but great pitching couldn’t have come at a better time for the Braves. We seem to have checked every box so far and we look to be one of the better and hotter teams as postseason play looks to get underway in a few short weeks.