Braves aren’t giving up on postseason as their chances continue to dip

“When everything starts to click — this team won a World Series in ’21, you know?” Braves starting pitcher Grant Holmes argued on behalf of keeping the faith. “There’s some pitchers that aren’t pitching right now, but the hitters are relatively the same. The one through nine’s got some really good players with (Ronald) Acuña and (Matt Olson) and (Austin) Riley coming back soon. We get on that run and it’s gonna be pretty good.”

To Holmes’ point, the Braves offense has seemingly turned a bit of a corner, even with Riley (abdominal strain) on the 10-day injured list until at least Tuesday. That unit scored nearly six runs per game over the past six, and that included being shut down by Yankees starter Marcus Stroman in Sunday’s 4-2 loss.

But what matters is the wins and losses, of course, and the Braves went 3-3 in those six games, not the type of results needed to make any sort of upward progress in the standings.

Holmes admitted a glance or two at those standings is only human nature.

“Obviously it’s in some of our heads, but when you get between the lines it’s this game, this moment,” he said. “I wish it was possible, I wish you could win five games in one day, put five wins in the win column one day. But you can only win one game at a time, and that’s what it’s all about. Few here, few there, one in between and you’re 6-1. Hopefully we can get back on track and go on that run that we’ve been waiting for.”

Holmes gave the Braves a quality start Sunday, rebounding from a two-run first inning to hold the Yankees to one more run before leaving in the sixth. Fellow starter Spencer Strider did his job Friday by hurling six scoreless innings. Even Joey Wentz, a reliever added to the roster earlier this month, was able to put the Braves in a winning position Saturday by throwing four innings and allowing no runs.

The Braves bullpen, however, surrendered three runs Friday, 12 runs Saturday and another Sunday.

Being an aligned squad, with the offense, starting pitching and relief work all performing at a high level for long stretches, has been an elusive matter since opening day. And with a little more than 60% of the season complete, the Braves may just be who they are at this point.

“All we can do is just focus on today and play hard each and every day and come to the ball field and do your best and get your work in,” Holmes said about the team’s mindset moving forward. “It’s just one day at a time. You can’t win two games — you can’t win on Wednesday when you’re playing on Monday, so it’s focus on Monday and do everything you can to win.”

Using 90 as a legitimate benchmark for total wins needed to make the postseason, the Braves would have to go 47-17 (a .734 winning clip) over the next two-plus months. Baseball Reference gives the team a 0.3% chance to make the postseason, FanGraphs is a little kinder by giving a 2.5% chance.

Braves manager Brian Snitker met with the team before the start of the season’s unofficial second half and implored them not to pay attention to such matters, only to win the day at hand. But even he seemed to indicate he knows how treacherous a mountain stands in front of him and his club.

“We don’t need to go 50-16, we just need to win today,” he said over the weekend. “The only thing we can control is today, and the focus needs to be for today for everybody, myself included.”