Now that the Atlanta Braves have laid a really big egg in the Big Apple, is it fair to ask if their near-certain lock on the National League playoffs isn't quite so certain anymore?
Especially when they didn't just lose four of five games to the NL East-leading New York Metropolitans, but lost them by a total score of 31-22, scoring a meager two runs in each of the last two losses. And those two defeats have been more the rule than the exception of late, despite the Braves trailing only the New York Yankees in home runs for all of Major League Baseball.
In fact, over the last 14 games, Atlanta has scored two or fewer runs six times, and the Braves won one of those, besting Arizona 1-0 back on July 31.
Perhaps that's why, without calling out his own team, Atlanta skipper Brian Snitker said of the Mets' success with the bats against his pitching staff: "When you put the ball in play, good things can happen, especially with two strikes. [The Mets] fight balls off and foul balls off. They get your pitch count up, and they've got experienced hitters now."
The Braves haven't been doing much of that of late against anybody. But it caught up to them in New York, where, according to MLB.com, Atlanta struck out 19 times in 30 plate appearances on Sunday and posted a 30.5 percent strikeout rate (57 times in 187 plate appearances) for the five games.
Said shortstop Dansby Swanson to MLB.com after Sunday's loss: "We obviously didn't play well in all phases of the game. Offensively, I didn't think we had a lot of consistent at-bats. Defensively, there were a lot of miscues, not just errors, but with free passes and giving up extra bases. The pitching was inefficient with pitch counts and stuff of that nature."
In other words, other than that 9-6 win on Friday that started out with an 8-0 lead and Swanson's sixth-inning, two-run homer off Jacob deGrom on Sunday that ended his no-hitter, "It wasn't a good weekend," said Snitker.
But can it get better starting Tuesday night at Boston, the Neil Diamond classic "Sweet Caroline" washing over iconic Fenway Park?
After all, it's not just that 30 of the remaining 52 games are on the road, or that 10 of the last 13 are away from home with those three lone home games coming against the Mets on September 30 and October 1-2. Beyond that, 23 of those 52 games are against teams that entered Monday as playoff squads. Atlanta may have built much of that June-July run against MLB's lambs, but if it is to defend its World Series crown it will have to tame lions down the stretch.
Now 18 games over .500 after heading to New York 21 games above that line, the Braves are but three games in front of the sizzling Phillies in the wildcard race, 3.5 ahead of San Diego and 5 ahead of Milwaukee. They're now also 6.5 games behind the Mets in the NL East, a daunting, if not impossible task given the return of deGrom and Max Scherzer to the pitching rotation.
Still, maybe this embarrassment in the city that never sleeps really was nothing to lose sleep over. Maybe, as Sunday's losing pitcher Spencer Strider moaned, "(The Mets) seem to having a lot of luck right now offensively. A lot of weird hits. That's great. It's August. (We'll) see what things are like in October."
Nevertheless, just to feel safe about getting to October, Atlanta would do well to win at least half of next week's four games against the Mets when they come to Truist Park. Then it might want to win at least two of three when the Mets visit again the final week of the regular season.
The Braves pitchers might also want to quit walking so many batters. In five games against New York they walked 19 to just eight walked by the Mets. Tough to beat a good team if the walks are even, but putting 11 more of their guys on base than you over five games without forcing them to put the ball in play is suicide.
"We've got to put it behind us," said Snitker in his postgame remarks. "We've got enough games that we can make a run at this thing."
Unfortunately, as unfathomable as this sounded a week ago, if the Braves don't become more disciplined at both the plate and on the mound, they also have enough games left to miss the playoffs altogether for the first time in five years.
Contact Mark Wiedmer at mwiedmer@timesfreepress.com.