We wake up on a Thursday and survey the landscape. Braves crapped out in Miami and Nats did in Queens, but alas, Braves still get the division crown AND the first round bye. Nah, nah, nuh, nah, nah.

With no possible difference to the Braves if they won or lost, the keys became:

1. resting people that needed rest. The only one that seemed to not get any rest was Olson. I wonder if he told Snit something like it took this long to get my hitting going, so I need to stay in and stay sharp. The “New Night Shift” all got to chill for a night. They will all now get 6 rest days before the next game on October 12 in Atlanta. Chill dudes. You have earned it.

2. Not getting anybody hurt. JamesD84 in the last thread hit a big one. Don’t play Acuna and give Mattingly one more chance to hit him. No reports of any injuries after the game, so maybe we passed this one.

3. Give the back part of the projected 26 man roster and possible other add ins on 40 man a chance to play and sharpen up. Grissom, Adrianza, Heredia. Also Bracho, Matzek (it is sad to type that), and Stephens. Jesse Chavez is in his own category below and Dylan Lee is developing into a horse for Hendricks racing’s second chariot team.

4. The man, the mystery, the force, Jesse Chavez. Chavez got a Chavez crap out over and gone. I was on the radio in the car when he came in. Don told a story about talking to Chavez near the end of the celebration and Don said something like “I am sorry the Braves traded you.” Chavez said “Me, too.” I am sorry things didn’t work out in Chicago and LA.” Chavez said “Me too.” Total of 4 “Me, too” responses. I walked in the house and opened up game cast and it had gone from 6 to 5 Braves to 8 to 6 Marlins. The Chavez blow up was that fast. But, there will be a time between now and then, when Jesse will do something amazing in a positive way.

On to the game, such as it was. For the past week or so, the offense has failed to get it done and the pitching carried the team. Well, the second string offense showed out pretty big last night. Adrianza and Arcia were the true “o-fers.” In 5 plate appearances neither got a hit nor a walk. The other folks chimed in with 15 hits, 6 of them doubles and 2 of them home runs, 3 BB’s and a HBP. So, 19 guys reached in 9 innings and 9 scored and 10 were left on.

But, not only Chavez, but also Matzek, Stephens, and Bracho, got lit up. When you score 9, you win about 95% of the time. When you give up 12, you win about 1% of the time. So, it is simple math. Do I think any of those performances are relevant to the post season? Maybe Matzek is confirmed not to be part of the “in group”, But Snit and Kranny were already showing that. Maybe Stephens is “break glass only in case of emergency,” or maybe he gets replaced by Muller or Elder or somebody else.

Oh, and Braves, this “always lose on Wednesdays” shit has to go. Game 2 of Division series is a Wednesday. You can’t just concede a day and keep going through the postseason. Bobby Cox used to concede Sunday in a 162 game season and that may have made sense. So, if that was what you were doing (saving energy for the post season) I am o.k. with it. But otherwise, October 13 is a win, get it?