ATLANTA–Like it or not, the Braves have become the baseball version of Schrodinger's Cat.
How so? Well, while you're reading this Wikipedia explanation of Schrodinger's Cat (are we clear here?), on the heels of Atlanta's 4-2 defeat and subsequent home sweep to Colorado, the Braves' playoff chances might be alive–and dead–at the same time.
Let's start with the dead portion of this assessment:
With Sunday's loss at SunTrust Park, the Braves are momentarily locked in a tie with the Phillies (playing Sunday night) for first place in the National League East (dueling 68-55 records).
On the wild-card front, Atlanta, Philadelphia, Colorado (68-56), St. Louis (68-56) and Milwaukee (69-57) are all separated by less than one game, and only three of the five would end up reaching the postseason, if the playoffs started today.
And don't forget about the Dodgers (66-58), who are only one weekend sweep from making this a legitimate six-horse race for three vacant spots.
Regarding the alive portion of the assessment:
**Atlanta has an eminently winnable stretch of games over the next 14 days, taking on Pittsburgh (six games), Miami (four games), Tampa Bay (two) and the Chicago Cubs (one-game makeup at home).
**The Braves have been productive on the road throughout the season. The club's longest slide away from SunTrust Park is a mere four games; and when charting the other National League offenses, Atlanta boasts the following high rankings, per category: 1st in doubles, batting average, slugging, OPS rate; 2nd in hits; and 4th in runs, homers and RBI.
**Atlanta will most likely control its own fate with the divisional and wild-card races down the stretch. From Sept. 14-30, the Braves face the Nationals (home), red-hot Cardinals (home), Phillies (home/away) and Mets (road).
Back to Sunday's defeat, which had an anti-climactic feel to it–perhaps a lingering resentment from the bullpen blowing a 3-0 lead with two outs in the ninth inning on Saturday night.
On this day, the Braves got off to another solid start, with Johan Camargo's RBI single bringing home Freddie Freeman in the opening frame. However, the Rockies answered back immediately with a Trevor Story solo homer off Braves starter Anibal Sanchez (second inning).
In the 3rd, Sanchez (three runs, five hits allowed over 6 2/3 innings ... eight strikeouts) retired the first two hitters, but ran into trouble after that, allowing a solo homer to D.J. LeMahieu, a double to David Dahl and an RBI single to Nolan Arenado.
This Rockies' scoring burst seemingly had a deflating effect on the Braves. For their final seven at-bats, they sent more than four hitters to the plate just once–the sixth inning.
For that sequence, it was a virtual repeat of the first inning, with Camargo taking care of the RBI duties ... and Freeman coming home on the play.
Rookie Ronald Acuna Jr. didn't register a hit on Sunday; but that can be expected, after crushing eight homers in an eight-day span last week and then collecting three hits on Saturday (along with two runs).
Here's another thing that happens in baseball, over time: Until today, the Braves hadn't incurred a four-game home sweep in three years, succumbing to the Mets from Sept. 10-13 in 2015.
