Quick Braves Update

It took a four game winning streak, but the Braves are back to .500 sitting 3rd in the NL East. While there has been a little bit of doom and gloom around Atlanta at the disappointing start to the season, I for one am pretty optimistic for the rest of the season. The Braves have already completed their longest road trip of the season. That trip was a total nightmare. Soriano, Moylan, and Glavine, three of our most important pitchers, all went to the DL. Chipper did his annual "tweaking" of a muscle somewhere on his body, and we lost 7 out of the 9 games we played. Yet most of those losses were by a single run, games in which luck plays a huge factor. On top of that, the four game winning streak has featured wins by our 3,4, and 5 starters, headlined by Jurrjen's masterful performance against Los Dodgers last night. At this point, the Braves are a top 6 team both in hitting (going by OPS) and pitching (going by ERA) in all of baseball. We sport a run differential of +30, better than the Mets by a bit and far superior to the Phillies. Teixeira's bat is heating up. Gonzalez will soon return to fill Moylan's void. And Glavine will be back soon. Escobar has validated the faith the coaching staff put in him when they traded Renteria. The Braves offense is primed to score runs and, for once, we have the pitching depth (Bennett, James, Carlyle, and Reyes) to overcome the temporary loss of Glavine and the continued and indefinite absence of Hampton. Yes, a .500 winning percentage with a run differential of +30 over 18 games is frustrating because of all the games that slipped away. However, over the course of the season if we can remain on that trajectory, luck will give way to probability and the Braves will be just fine.