The Atlanta Braves get ready to take on the Pittsburgh Pirates tonight at 7:05 and hope to continue to gain ground on the division leading Washington Nationals. Paul Maholm takes the mound for the Braves and looks to continue the dominance by Atlanta starting pitchers.
The Braves are coming off of two straight wins against the New York Mets in Atlanta, celebrating Chipper Jones' final home games at Turner Field. The Braves have a spot locked up for the playoffs, but would like to somehow catch the Nationals, which right now looks nearly impossible. The Nationals need to win one more game, or need the Braves to lose one more, and they will clinch the division. They both have three games remaining.
Why is this so important you might ask? Well the Braves would like to avoid having to play this Friday in a one-game, wild card playoff, most likely against the St. Louis Cardinals. The Braves would need to win that one game, to be able to move on into the "real" playoffs and play in a five-game series. The Braves are well ahead of the Cardinals, but if they lost to them in the one-game playoff, their season would be over, and considered a failure in Chippers last year.
With the way Atlanta has been playing of late though, they might be unstoppable and easily win that one game against the Cardinals and take down their next three opponents and win the World Series and send Chipper out a champion. Two things have to happen though. First the starting pitching needs to keep stepping up and pitching like they have been of late. Second, the offense needs to keep swinging their hot bats and give the pitchers the run support they need.
So, this series against the Pirates, who have lost 18 of their last 23 games, will be a good playoff tune-up for the Braves. It all starts tonight, if Maholm can pitch well, and possibly secure himself a spot in the playoff rotation, and the bats come out swinging, the Braves should be well prepared, for whatever situation they end up with.
No comments:
Post a Comment