Braves vs. Rockies series recap: A stabilizing run of seven straight successes

What a difference a week makes, right? Around this time last week, the Atlanta Braves were looking to simply get the train back on the tracks by salvaging a win from a series loss against the Brewers. They’d lost three full series in a row and the Phillies were red hot. It was getting too close for comfort at the top of the NL East!

Now here we are, just a week later and the Braves appear to be back in control of things. They already managed to pull off a major coup with a three-game sweep over the Los Angeles Dodgers and now it was time to take care of business against a Colorado Rockies team that appeared prime to trip up the Braves based on how they performed over the weekend. Either way, it was on the Braves to make sure that they didn’t let off the gas against the NL West cellar-dwellers after putting pedal-to-the-metal against the NL West leaders earlier this week. How did things go? Let’s take a look.

Friday, August 28

Braves 6, Rockies 4

Despite the fact that it was “only” a two-run win for the Braves, this felt like a business-like performance from Atlanta as far as the offense goes. The Braves racked up 14 hits on the night and raced out to a 4-0 lead after three innings. Michael Harris II and Sean Murphy picked up RBI doubles in the second inning, Drake Baldwin delivered an RBI single to make it 3-0 after two and then Mauricio Dubón continued his incredible run with two outs and runners in scoring position as he knocked in a run to make it 4-0.

Grant Holmes was going smoothly until the fifth inning, which is when the Rockies got a small-ball rally going against Holmes. Four singles, a sacrifice fly and a productive ground ball out saw the Rockies push three runs across the board in order to make things a bit interesting but at the same time, Atlanta responded almost immediately and got all but one of those runs back in the fifth inning. In contrast to what Colorado was doing, those two runs came on one swing after Money Mike swatted one to the Chop House to put Atlanta back in front by three runs.

Those three runs were the only runs that Colorado could push past Holmes while he was out there and the only other run that the Rockies could pick up came on a sacrifice fly from Willi Castro off of Ray Kerr in the seventh to bring us to the final score of 6-4. Victor Mederos and Raisel Iglesias both made sure that the score stayed at 6-4 and ensured that Atlanta got off to a winning start in this particular series.

Saturday, August 29

Braves 2, Rockies 1

The offense wasn’t as free-flowing as it was on Friday night, as both teams really had to scrap for the runs that were pushed across the plate on this particular evening. Martín Pérez once again delivered another productive start as he went 5.2 innings and struck out six, but the sixth inning ended up being the end of the road for Pérez after he ran into some two-out trouble. A single, a walk and a Willi Castro RBI single ended up moving Colorado into the lead in the sixth and chased Pérez from the game. Atlanta struggled through the sixth and the seventh as well, so it sure seemed like the Braves were on their way to a disappointing loss to Colorado.

Instead, some of that eighth-inning Truist Park magic once again came into play as the Braves started a two-out rally of their own at a crucial time. Two singles set the stage for Michael Harris II to once again come up huge, as he slapped one out into left-center. Not only did Cole Carigg not make the catch, he booted it deeper into the outfield and gave both Matt Olson and Mauricio Dubón enough time to score. Carigg really didn’t take the flub well, Didier Fuentes shut the door in the ninth inning and the Braves were able to celebrate a series win in dramatic fashion.

Sunday, August 30

Braves 3, Rockies 2

For the Rockies to have such a bad record, they definitely made made life tough for Atlanta over the course of this series. They came close to toppling the Braves on Saturday and hung with Atlanta in the latter portion of Sunday’s contest as well. The Braves got out to an early lead thanks to Sean Murphy launching one to his buddies in the home bullpen for solo shot and then Ronald Acuña Jr. followed it up with an RBI single to put the Braves into a 2-0 lead.

Tyler Mahle pitched six innings in this one and only gave up one run, which is something he’s turned into a habit since joining the Braves. However, those two runs that Atlanta scored in the third were all the help that Mahle got and the one-run lead that he left with was eventually turned into a deadlock in the eighth inning after Colorado deftly manufactured a run out of a leadoff single, two productive outs and a two-out single from Connor Norby. The Braves had already squandered some opportunities to add on and so this game ended up being destined for extra innings.

The tenth inning was pretty straight-forward. Victor Mederos pitched a clean tenth inning and then both Ronald Acuña Jr. and Matt Olson picked up singles to start (and end) the tenth inning. Olson’s single ended up being the walk-off knock and the Braves broke out the brooms for the first time since, well, this past Thursday. Sweet!

Hoo boy, the Braves have needed a run like this for a while. After having a rough and rocky run of games where they had won only five of 15 games in August, the Braves have gotten this month back on track with a much-needed seven-game winning streak. They came into August on a good run and assuming they can keep it going on Monday against the Giants, they’ll be entering September on a run.

They’ve just about recovered from that rough road trip through the Central Divisions by beating up on both the NL West’s leaders and cellar dwellers over the course of a week. It’s also fascinating to note how close these games have been — the largest margin for the Braves during this streak has been two runs. These games have been played on a razor’s edge and it could’ve gone either way. Instead, Atlanta has managed to take advantage of any good bounces that have come their way while managing to avoid toe usual pratfalls that were catching them off-guard during their rough run of form.

In fact, a lot of the games that the Braves lost while they were scuffling through August weren’t exactly blowouts, either. A lot of those losses were by one, two or three runs, so this month could very well have been a month where they’d really be preparing to deliver the knockout blow to the Phillies — and it still could end up going in that direction if the Braves can keep up the pace heading into next weekend’s series in Philadelphia. Instead, they still have a decent-sized advantage but this streak has served to stabilize things for Atlanta rather than serve as a devastating blow to their divisional rivals from Pennsylvania.

Anyways, this was a pretty big series win for the Braves. They did a great job of taking care of business and ensuring that there was no let down following a massive sweep over the Dodgers. They kept up the intensity against a Rockies squad that showed plenty of fight over the course of the three games. Fortunately, the hitting for Atlanta was timely enough and the pitching was stellar, as has been usual since the break. The pitching staff has continued to justify Alex Anthopoulos’s faith in this unit, with deadline acquisition Tyler Mahle continuing to be impressive and Martín Pérez continuing to come up big when he’s called upon.

Plain-and-simple, Atlanta’s trending in the right direction. They’re in possession of the second bye thanks to their efforts against the Dodgers and they’ve got a decent-sized gap between them and the Phillies in the standings. With the games getting more and more important, the Braves are putting themselves in a very good position with the home stretch looming. Let’s see this run of form continue!