Atlanta Braves’ Justin Upton, right, celebrates his home run with teammate Brian McCann against the Washington Nationals during the seventh inning of a baseball game on Wednesday, Aug. 7, 2013, in Washington.WASHINGTON – Order another round for Atlanta Braves manager Fredi Gonzalez, who has learned that a winning streak can be tough to swallow.
The Braves won their 13th straight Wednesday night, summarily dismissing the Washington Nationals 6-3 to complete a three-game sweep and take a staggering-for-early-August 15½-game lead in the NL East.
Now Gonzalez will have to keep drinking up. It turns out that the streak happened to begin on the day that bullpen coach Eddie Perez first gave the manager some sort of protein drink. Gonzalez hates the taste, but he can’t stop drinking it with his team on such a roll; sure enough, he was sipping the concoction from a cup in the dugout a couple of hours before Wednesday’s game.
“They may be giving me poop. I don’t even know what it is,” Gonzalez said. “But I’ve been drinking them for 13 days in a row now. We’re superstitious, you know.”
Maybe there are some four-leafs clovers stashed in the clubhouse as well, the way the Braves have been playing. While they have a ways to go before they can mathematically clinch, this week has served as a psychological clincher that only could be undone by a monumental collapse.