You may have heard there was more bad news for our Braves today.  The Schwellenbach elbow injury, on top of Chris Sale’s broken rib, is devastating.  In fact, it’s so bad that the Braves gave serious consideration to canceling the rest of this season.  But the commissioner said no, you’ve got to play out the string for the next three months, even though your offense sucks and your two best starting pitchers are on the shelf for at least the next couple of months.

So the Braves thought, what the hell, if we’ve got to play them anyway, why not win as many as we can.  Here’s the plan: why not return to the 2023 playbook and outscore everyone else by a wide margin? It’s true that going into Wednesday’s game the Braves had outscored only the Pirates and the Rockies (scoring fewer runs than the Nationals and the Marlins, for Pete’s sake!).  But then they realized, hey, we’ve got most of the same guys who turned in arguably the greatest offensive season in MLB history just two years ago.  So going forward, the plan is to get a lot more guys on base and then when they do, hit the ball out of the park.

I’m happy to report that the new plan has worked to perfection so far.  Actually, they did not fully implement the plan until the bottom of the 6th, when they trailed 2-0. But when they did finally use the plan, it turns out that it works!  With two outs, Profar and Albies both singled.  In furtherance of the plan, Sean Murphy promptly knocked one out of the park to give the Braves a 3-2 lead.  Everyone realized at that point that this plan makes a lot of sense, so the next three guys got on base, so that Matt Olson could then hit a grand slam.  All of a sudden, it’s Braves 7, Angels 2.  Then in the 7th, Jurickson Profar hit a homer of his own (although of the solo variety) making it 8-2.  Turns out that hitting home runs and scoring runs in bunches is fun!

Those 8 runs were more than enough to win this game easily.  Didier Fuentes gave up two in the first, but then held them scoreless into the 4th.  Not great, but better than his last start.  The key was great bullpen work.  Bummer shut them out for 2 and a third (Aaron is much better than many give him credit for), Daysbel had a shutout inning in his return, and Montero had another scoreless inning.  After a shaky start, he’s been quite good for the last month or so. Dodd gave up a sole shot to Soler in the 9th, but that was it.  Braves win, 8-3.

So here’s what’s going to happen going forward. The offense will be much more like 2023 than last year or this year.  Ronald and Matty O will continue to be excellent.  Riley and Olson will shake off the doldrums and return to form.  The catching duo will continue to be the best at that position outside of Seattle.  The left field spot, with Profar finally back, will be worlds better than it’s been (low bar, I know!).  Ozzie and MHII will not be world beaters, but they will both show that they haven’t completely forgotten how to hit. Michael did have a triple last night and two hits tonight.

So that’s the plan.  Score lots of runs, and do so in bunches with 3 run homers and grand slams.  They are going to need to, of course.  The starting pitching in May and June was a good as anyone in baseball.  But with Sale and Schwellenbach sidelined for at least a couple of months each, they will be giving up a lot more runs.  The beauty of the plan is, if they just score runs at the 2023 pace, they can still be within shouting distance of the final wild card spot come September when Sale and Schwellenbach return in triumph.

So don’t despair.  The season is not lost.  All they need to do is hit a lot more 3 and 4 run homers.  So far, so good.