Braves fail to take advantage of huge opportunity

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With possibly the best chance of the season to gain on the wild card leaders, the Braves flunked. They went into Philadelphia 8.5 games back of Colorado for the second wild card spot and exited 11.5 back. As most people expected coming into the season, the playoffs look like nothing but a dream to this year’s Braves club.

After going through a rough patch in schedule, playing Arizona twice, Chicago and the Dodgers (all playoff teams), they failed to take advantage of the MLB’s worst team. In fact, they have played their worst baseball of the season against the Phillies all year winning just two of nine games. Now the Braves move on back home where they will play three with the major-league best Dodgers, then three with the Marlins and two with the Phillies. It will be nice for the Braves to finally return home, but a home stand where they will play the best team in baseball and two against a team they can’t beat to save their lives.

So to break down this series, the bats weren’t bad but they failed to capitalize on opportunities with runners in scoring position.  The bullpen was the biggest letdown of the series, pitching fourteen innings and giving up fourteen earned runs with seven hits and seven walks given up. On the offensive side, the Braves scored thirteen runs with 39 hits combined in all four games. But they also left 33 on base and we’re nine for thirty with RISP. When the Braves look back on this season, they will be disappointed they were not able to take advantage of the lesser teams like the Phillies.

In the upcoming week, they play the Dodgers and the Marlins at home. Also, Lucas Sims is set to be called up and make his debut with the Braves Tuesday against L.A. Possibly the most intriguing thing to watch the rest of the season is for the young guys being called up. Oh, and the Braves also fell back from 2nd to 4th in the division. That’s what getting swept in four games to the worst team in baseball will do to you.

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