The Atlanta Braves ended last week and began this week on a five game high. They finished the last game at the Diamondbacks series by by shutting out the DBacks 6-0. They then headed a little north to Colorado where they finished off the Rockies by sweeping them taking all four games by the count of 13-6, 3-1, 6-2, and the brooms were sweeping in a 8-7 victory.
It’s never easy winning in Colorado because of the high altitude and the baseballs seem to fly out of Coors Field left and right. These games are always high scoring with a good pitching duel here and there, but that’s rare at Coors Field.
So far this season the Braves have been an under par team that has not lived up to the World Series Championship that they earned last year. Baseball writers thought that the Braves had the National League wrapped up this year even before the season began. But the New York Mets have started the season on fire, currently with a record of 37-19, with the Braves in 2nd, 8.5 games back with a 28-27 record. But if you recall this is what happened last year when the Braves were seven games back after the All-Star break, bounced back, and we all know how it ended for the Braves.
It was a big let down when 1B Freddie Freeman went out to Los Angeles to play for the Braves rival, the Dodgers. New 1B Matt Olson is not Freeman, but he doesn’t have to be. He just needs to be himself. I think it is actually more difficult to come home and play for your hometown team. It’s always nice to be home, but there is always more expectations, which is hard on a player. Olson just needs to be himself, a gold glover first baseman. He is only average with his batting average, just around .270, but he does have power as he belted 39 homers last year.
Braves have played 55 games so far in the 2022 season. As a team they are hitting .241. Out of 1864 total at-bats for the team, they have 450 hits, and 69 homeruns as a team. They need to cut down on their strikeouts. So far the team has struckout at the plate 530 times in the 55 games.
As a team, the Braves are 15th in the league in pitching with a 3.85 earned run average (ERA). The team has given up 425 hits, 239 runs in which 210 were earned. Opponents are hitting a combined .246 against the Braves entire pitching staff. As a whole, the team is holding their own. The surprise to me out of the Braves pitching so far is starter Kyle Wright. Left for dead last year, he has come into his own. He is 5-3 with a 2.41 ERA in 10 games where he has started.
Today, the Braves start a six game home stand at Truist Park. They welcome the Oakland Athletics (Olson’s previous team) in for two games and finish the last four against the Pittsburgh Pirates.
Header photo courtesy of MLB.com
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