“There’s always next year…”

Haven’t we heard that so often over the years?

Well – the Braves are now eliminated from the playoffs – for the second year in a row. Now is the time to finish out the season strong, hope Chipper wins the batting title, and figure out which steps to take to make the team stronger next season.

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Don’t look now…

I hate that phrase, “don’t look now,” yet I can’t really think of any other way to put it right now. The Braves are finally playing well enough to get to October. That’s the good news. The bad news is that not only are they 3 games out of the wild card with only 5 to play, there are also 3 teams ahead of them. Jumping over 3 teams in just 5 days is a tall task for any team and because of that I am tempering my hopes for a late September miracle. However, it appears as if we may have been helped out by the scheduling gods, so let’s take a look at the remaining games for each of the teams ahead of us, plus our own.

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The Renteria Factor

With all the talk about Tex and Andruw’s pending free agency (and we will cover that, have no doubt), I want to look past it and put an important part of the top of our lineup in perspective. Schuerholz needs to (and undoubtedly will) remember that Edgar Renteria’s contract expires at the end of next season. We cannot so burden ourselves with huge contracts that we cannot afford to resign him. Why, you ask?

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Another Win!

How bout that Jeff Bennett?

He pitched 5 2/3rds innings and left the game with a 3-1 lead. That’s some solid clutch pitching, especially for a strained pitching staff. Also, the dastardly Mets lost, which is great for us. Phillies pulled out the win though, so we didn’t gain on them.

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Last Push for the Postseason?

Well, tonight was the Braves’ fourth win in a row and – after a Mets’ losing streak (they broke it tonight), they sit only 5.5 games out of first and 5 games out of the wild card spot. Now, if they can put together a bit of a run, one can only hope they’ll eek their way into a playoff spot, be it the wild card or division title.

Many would say that discussing the Braves and the postseason in one paragraph is foolish, but if the pitching all of a sudden holds out, it wouldn’t be the first time late September brought a refreshing change of pace for the team. With Chuck James doing his best Tim Hudson impression and pitching seven innings of shutout ball, we can only hope to see the confidence spread throughout the rest of the pitching staff.

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