It’s been a frustrating year for the Atlanta Braves so far who just can never seem to get on a big run of success to give themselves some breathing room.
Consistency has been an obvious problem for this Atlanta Braves team in 2021. And as a fan, it’s really frustrating not knowing what team is going to show up on a given night.
Every time it seems like they’re turning a corner and ready to go on a big run, they have a stinker of a game as they did on Tuesday night to remind us this team still has a lot of problems.
If you look at the pattern for this team in 2021 they started the season losing four in a row and then they won four in a row. Then they lose four in a row again before winning five of their next seven. They lose two, they win three, they lose four, they win three.
That right there screams inconsistency and a .500 team, which is exactly what they are right now.
It feels like they’ve been playing catch-up since the season started and just aren’t able to get over the hump. They haven’t spent a day over .500 the entire year.
The biggest reason for that is obviously the losing streaks. Great teams don’t tend to have several runs of three or four straight losses. The Braves already have three four-game losing streaks this year.
What’s worse, is this has been a pretty soft part of the schedule.
Their next eight games are against opponents with winning records, and 13 of their next 18 games are against teams with winning records.
They have an uphill battle to climb and they’ll do so against stiff competition. But they have to find a way to put some good streaks together — as they have over the past few weeks — get five or so games above .500 to give themselves some breathing room.
And this team is getting better with reinforcements on the way in the bullpen.
Offensively they’re getting better as well with every regular in the lineup (except William Contreras and Cristian Pache) hitting .227 or better over the last 15 days.
However, only Austin Riley and Ozzie Albies are hitting better than .239 over that stretch, but still, for most, it’s an improvement over where they’ve been all season.
The Braves have six games against the NL East-leading New York Mets in the second half of May, so now is the time to get going and get back atop the division.