Alex Lian / UnsplashThe Dodgers Didn't Come to Visit
Los Angeles arrives at Truist Park on a six-game win streak, and the Braves haven't won a series in three weeks. This isn't a measuring stick. It's a mirror.
The Dodgers just rolled into Truist Park on a 6-game win streak and I need the Braves to tell me who they are.
Not who they were in June. Not the team that built a 9.5-game cushion and let everyone else play for second. Who they are RIGHT NOW — at 6-11 in their last 17, watching 6.5 games of breathing room evaporate like August rain on hot asphalt.
Yesterday I called the #8 power ranking generous. Rankings are opinions. This series is a verdict.
LA is 80-51. Best record in the National League. They just swept Pittsburgh without breaking a sweat. They are what October looks like — and if Atlanta can't hang with them in a late-August home series, I don't want to hear about October windows.
The Phillies losing 9-2 in Seattle tonight buys exactly one breath. One. Philly's been 16-5 this month. They turned a 9.5-game gap into 3 in less than three weeks. One bad Braves series and this lead goes from slim to imaginary.
I had the Braves' October window at 70% since July. I'm dropping it to 62%.
Three-game lead. Trending wrong. Best team in baseball just walked through the door. And the team chasing you remembers what September feels like.
Win this series and the conversation changes. Get swept and we're watching a collapse happen in real time — and everybody outside Atlanta already sees it coming.
Bookmark this anyway.
The Tilt
If the Braves can't take this series at home, the NL East lead is already a formality the Phillies haven't bothered to collect yet.
— Dex Ponce
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