Mark Wiedmer
Any other major league baseball team might understandably have given up months ago. Lose five of your eight All-Star selections from the year before due to season-ending injury or close to it this time around? When does our unofficial summer vacation begin?
Only the Atlanta Braves aren’t just any team or organization. Character matters. Playing every game like it’s your last matters. The clubhouse matters.
So when Monday night arrived in Minneapolis, and an 86-minute torrential storm caused everyone a lo-o-o-ng rain delay after just one inning of play, Atlanta starter Max Fried, still recovering from an arm injury, could have easily called it a night. No one would have blamed him, even if his bullpen teammates would have been further stressed in a summer full of it.
As Braves skipper Brian Snitker said later, “That would’ve taken a big bite out of the bullpen for a while there, been hard to catch up.”
But when the rain stopped, Fried told Snitker that he wanted to keep pitching. Snitker said that was fine, that it was Fried’s call. He went five innings total. And the Braves won 10-6. And the bullpen wasn’t too heavily taxed, which is big considering Atlanta has a crucial four-game series at NL East-leading Philadelphia this weekend.
“I felt really good,” said Fried. “I wanted to keep going and I knew if (the delay) lasted around an hour, I could make it. Once they gave us a (time to start back) I knew it was close enough, so I just tried to do my best to get through five and not put too much pressure on my bullpen.”
This is the Braves Way. Not every man for himself. All for one and one for all.
No organization has been hit harder with crippling injuries this year than the Bravos. Ace pitcher Spencer Strider and reigning MVP Ronald Acuna Jr. were lost for the year almost before the season began. Austin Riley and Ozzie Albies have seemed to spend more time off the field than on due to injuries. Lefty reliever AJ Minter hasn’t been far behind in that department. So, too, catcher Sean Murphy, who was injured in the season’s opening game.
Yet here they are in the last week of August, 11 games over .500 (71-60), winners of 10 of their last 14 heading into tonight’s game at Minnesota.
At this point, only two numbers really matter the rest of the way. No. 1, the Braves are three games up on the New York Mets for the final National League wildcard spot. No. 2, there are but 31 games left to play.
With 16 of those games scheduled for Truist Park, including the final six games of the year, the Braves certainly have a good chance to make the postseason for the seventh year in a row, even if a seventh straight division title seems a long shot, given Philadelphia’s current six-game lead.
But the Braves - despite enduring two six-game losing streaks since the All-Star break - have actually outperformed the Phillies since then, going 18-18 to Philly’s 15-20 mark. Who they haven’t kept pace with during that stretch are the Mets. New York is 19-17 and will visit Atlanta for a three-game series September 24-26 that could well determine the final wildcard spot.
And despite the Mets playing slightly better ball since the break, New York’s schedule seems a bit more difficult down the stretch, with just 13 home games left and a brutal run the last week of three games in Atlanta and three more to end the year at NL Central-leading Milwaukee.
If the Braves can just earn a split this weekend in Philly and another split when the Los Angeles Dodgers bring their league-best record to Truist in mid-September, Atlanta should make the postseason for a seventh straight year, a truly remarkable achievement given who isn’t playing right now.
In 2021, the Braves came out of nowhere to win it all. Then, as now, Acuna was injured. But a lot of other people had career years. The pitchers were almost all lights out. The hitters also got hot at the right time. Everything clicked, which is more and more how autumn baseball fairytales are made.
This is not to say that this is destined to be that kind of season for the Braves. It’s probably not. It may be one playoff series and done. But Fried stepping up for his teammates on Monday night is why this franchise never mails it in.
“We know that he always wants the ball,” said first baseman Matt Olson, who smashed a three-run homer, drove in five runs total and seems to be getting in the groove at the plate when he’s needed most. I personally thought someone was going to tell him no, but I thought it was cool.”
It might also be why the Braves get hot at just the right time to make another postseason.
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Mark Wiedmer can be reached at mwiedmer@mccallie.org