BravesNuWorld || An Atlanta Braves Blog

Tonight’s game against the reeling Padres secured a few things: the series sweep; the best home record in baseball; the winning steak at 6.  Nice feathers in the Braves’ cap, to be sure.  But far more importantly, tonight’s game–in which long time chronic problems magically evaporated before our very eyes–offered Braves fans something far more valuable: reason to believe.

They found a way to win despite multiple obstacles, any one of which alone are usually enough to nail the coffin shut: losing after the 6th inning; a (gasp) one run score; an early exit from the 4th or 5th starter; and a quiet performance from Chipper Jones. 

Relatively speaking, anyway.  (He had a single) 

Could tonight possibly have been the watershed game that we have desperately been waiting for, the trend setter that will put the Braves on an inexorable path back to the post season? It may be reaching a bit to assign this single game such macrocosmic importance, but man if they didn’t finally look like the team we all miss dearly–a combination of lethal finesse and confident swagger. They capitalized on opponent’s mistakes while making few of their own. The bullpen made fantastic pitches when they needed to, and didn’t commit any fatal walks late. And Greg Norton has already made a greater contribution from the bench in two plate appearances than Mike Woodward and Pete Orr did all of last year. Combined.

It might be premature to do cartwheels over the 33rd game of the year, but if it just so happens that what we just witnessed was the beginning of what will be known in baseball parlance as the Restoration of the Atlanta Braves, then for the Marlins, Mets, Nats, and Phillies:
it’s already over.

Ray K.-[BravesNuWorld]