Hot Braves

The Atlanta Braves seem to be this year's version of the 2007 Rockies. Over the past two weeks, they have are 12-2 including a sweep of the St. Louis Cardinals. They also play the Washington Nationals in 6 of their final 9 games with the other 3 against Florida. The Braves have an 8-4 record against the Nationals with all 4 losses coming in Washington. Against the Marlins they are 7-8, 2-4 in Atlanta. If the Braves were to win out the rest of their games, (finishing 21-2 down the stretch), the Rockies would only have to finish 5-3 to force a tiebreaker with the Braves, and 6-2 to win the Wild Card outright. Every loss reduces the Rockies needed record one. So let's assume the Braves stumble a couple of times and lose two of their remaining 9 games. This would require the Rockies to go only 4-4 to win the Wild card outright.

As Jim Tracy says, it's much better at this point to be the hunted rather than the hunted. Every time you win, it takes a little bit of air out of the hunter.