I started to compile a top ten list: most dispiriting losses of 2024.  But my spirit—and I suspect yours as well—doesn’t need further dissing.  Suffice it to say that last night’s 6-5 loss to the Redlegs would make the list.  Which is saying something, because there’s a plethora of candidates for that list.

The last two losses to the Dodgers were tough.  Sunday they wasted a masterful performance by Charlie Morton when they could not score more than two runs off the ghost of Walker Buehler.  Since his injury, he’s the same pitcher he always was, except he no longer has the stuff or the command.  Monday, they continually got the leadoff runner on, and often in scoring position with less than two outs, against Yamamoto, but couldn’t push anyone across.

Still, a split against the Dodgers was acceptable, with the Reds and Marlins on tap for the rest of the week.  And last night’s game started just the way you’d want.  The Braves put up a crooked number in the top of the first, on a solo shot by MHII and a two run blast by Matty O. (“Crooked number” has become a cliché, but I’m happy to deploy it, since I’ve had so few opportunities to do so this season.)  And they tacked on another run in the second with a rbi single by Laureano.  So 4-1, and Reds’ starter Williamson had to depart due to injury, forcing the Reds into an unplanned-for bullpen game.  They made it 5-1 in the fourth on a solo blast by Soler, and things were looking good.

Grant Holmes started for the Braves, and he did a creditable job, surrendering two runs on five hits over four innings.  He had not started in a while, so he was on a pitch count.  Snit turned to Uncle Jesse, who got the first five hitters he faced, before yielding a two out single in the sixth.  The next hitter hit a soft (59 mph!) liner that bounced out of Gio’s glove, and the following batter plated both runners with a double. So now it’s 5-4, and I could feel my spirit sinking.  A little insurance would have come in handy about then.  Sure enough, the Braves got a double by Urshela and a single from Harris (too shallow to send Gio, according to Tuiasosopo), but neither runner scored.

Then Pierce Johnson promptly allowed a single and a homer in the bottom of the seventh, and it’s 6-5 Reds.  Braves got a baserunner on in each of the eighth and ninth, but couldn’t scratch the tying run across.

For the first time all season, the Braves are two games out of the playoffs.  Given how they looked the last three games, that seems like a mighty steep hill to climb.

 *  *  *

But it’s not, really.  They are two games behind both the Mets and the D-backs.  The good news is, our guys face the hated Mets for three next week in Truist.  And our guys hold the tie breaker, so if we take at least two of three and finish the season tied for the final spot, we make the playoffs and they don’t.  (I haven’t actually looked that up, but I recall ububba said that recently, and if he says it I believe it.)  The other good news is that Arizona has not been paying very well lately, and the Braves only need to catch one of those two teams.

On the other hand, as sdp said last night: “What has this team done to merit a playoff spot? They’re 62-63 since taking 2/3 from Cleveland in April.”

I can’t argue with that.  They have been a profoundly mediocre team since the first month. It’s been dispiriting, no doubt. The season, and any post-season hopes, looks pretty dead. But as the Boss reminds us, maybe everything that dies some day comes back.

This season reminds me more and more of the 1982 Braves.  That team, after starting the season 13-0, played exactly .500 ball for the next five months.  Indeed, they were thirteen games over .500 on September 17.  And they were 3.5 games behind.  Here’s the good news: They won 9 of the next 13, taking a one game lead and clinched on the final day of the season.  That was a fun couple of weeks, including a couple of memorable shutouts tossed by Phil Niekro. (I won’t remind you what happened once they faced the Cardinals in the playoffs.)

They may not deserve to win, given how they have played for so much of the season.  And if they play the rest of the way like they have the last three nights, we won’t need to worry about the postseason.  But deserve has nothing to do with it.  If they play well the next couple of weeks, they are likely to sneak into the crapshoot.  And once they are in, anything can happen.  Their odds of going all the way wouldn’t be good, but neither are the odds for any one team at that point. Having a fun (rather than dispiriting) last couple of weeks needs to start with winning the next two in Cincy.  Let’s make a run.