All is good

Yes, the Braves are a game under .500 and 3 games back in the division. But this team will be good.

Pitching has been really good. Vazquez took a hard-luck loss last night, after going 8 innings (longest Braves outing all year) and throwing only 99 pitches! Better yet, only 27 of those 99 pitches were outside the strike zone. Then Soriano came in with a lights out performance in the 9th.

Ted Williams said: "The hardest thing to do in baseball is to hit a round baseball with a round bat, squarely." And St. Louis can attest to that, it wasn't square hits but dinky little bloop singles strung together in the 5th that put the Braves down last night. Unfortunately, the Braves, while squaring up a few, were unable yet again to string together enough hits to push across more than 3 runs.

Our pitching is great, but we've got to do more on the offensive side. Where's that bat that Frank Wren promised? Garret??? Garret?? Bueller? The Braves have averaged just over 3 runs per game in our last 15, and it's only that high thanks to an 11 and a 10 run game thrown in there. We need more consistency scoring runs, but I think we look good to be a contender all year. Perhaps we'll even pick up that big bat before the trade deadline!