The Atlanta Braves are doing what the Atlanta Braves do. They are sitting comfortably at the top of the MLB Power Rankings for the second straight week, holding onto a nine-game lead in the National League East and looking like the obvious favorite to win the division for the seventh time in eight years.
The lead is not surprising. The Braves entered the season as one of the favorites in the National League. The pitching is healthy. The lineup is producing. The bullpen has been mostly reliable. Atlanta is doing all the things that good teams do, and they are doing them with the kind of consistency that suggests October is going to look familiar around the Battery.
The rest of the NL East is a mess. The Phillies are inconsistent. The Mets have not figured out how to spend their way into a championship. The Marlins are rebuilding. The Nationals are improved but not a threat to the top of the division. The Braves are running away with it, and there is no obvious reason to think anyone is going to catch them.
What Is Working
Start with the lineup. The middle of the order has been productive on a nightly basis. Ronald Acuna Jr. is putting up MVP numbers when healthy. Matt Olson is mashing. Marcell Ozuna is doing Marcell Ozuna things. Sean Murphy is anchoring the defense behind the plate. The Braves have one of the deepest lineups in the league, and depth is what wins long seasons.
The starting rotation has been a pleasant surprise. Spencer Strider is healthy and pitching like an ace. Chris Sale has provided veteran leadership. The back of the rotation has held up better than anyone expected. The bullpen has had hiccups, but Raisel Iglesias is still locking down the ninth inning when called upon.
Manager Brian Snitker has the team playing the kind of detail-oriented baseball that translates to October. Defense. Baserunning. Situational hitting. The Braves are not flashy. They are just consistent, and consistent wins championships.
What to Watch Going Forward
The bigger questions are about October positioning. The Braves are going to win the division. The interesting question is whether they can grab the National League’s best record and home field advantage through the playoffs. That race is going to come down to the wire with the Dodgers and a couple of other contenders.
There are also some moves to monitor at the trade deadline. The Braves’ front office has been aggressive in past years about adding pieces for the stretch run. Expect more of the same this summer, especially with the bullpen showing some occasional cracks.
This is what dominant franchises look like. The Braves are not perfect. They are just better than everyone else in their division, and they have been for a long time. The rest of the National League will need to figure out how to slow them down, because nobody in the NL East is going to do it.
October cannot come soon enough for Atlanta fans. The path looks clear.
Get ready for another Braves October run. The team is built for it again.
A longtime sports reporter, Carlos Garcia has written about some of the biggest and most notable athletic events of the last 5 years. He has been credentialed to cover MLS, NBA and MLB games all over the United States. His work has been published on Fox Sports, Bleacher Report, AOL and the Washington Post.
