ATLANTA -- Nobody has ever argued the fact that Bobby Cox is a smart baseball guy. But how could he have known that the Braves bats would come alive like this?Sitting in his office after Thursday night's game, a game which marked the return of baseball from the All-Star break and the return of Jeff Francoeur to Atlanta, in a Mets uniform, Cox said, "I think the hitting you're going to see in the second half is a lot better than the first half."
If you include Thursday's game, the Braves have scored 24 runs in their four games since the break, all against the Mets. They've also averaged 10.25 hits per game and hit six home runs in their three victories (and one loss) against New York.
"I looked at the schedule and I think we have 35 games in the second half between the Mets, Phillies and the Marlins." said Derek Lowe who pitched in Thursday's 5-3 win.
It becomes plain then, how important it was for the Braves to start off on a good note. It also becomes obvious that it's not just Cox and Lowe who are looking ahead at the second half of the baseball season with a real belief that the Braves can make a run. Brian McCann is also excited about the second half.
"The last three weeks of the first half I knew we had a good team here. We let one slip away in the last game before the break, but we didn't care. That was the mindset. We knew we'd come back from the break and swing the bat well and play good baseball," McCann said.
Heading into the All-Star break at 43-45 and only six games back of the Phillies, the Braves had to consider themselves fortunate to be as close to a contention as they are. But they've also acted on that good fortune, making some changes in preparation for a possible playoff run. Two-thirds of the starting outfield is different today than in April with Jeff Francoeur shipped off to New York and Jordan Schafer in Triple-A Gwinnett. Ryan Church and Nate McLouth patrol the outfield with Garret Anderson now.
Martin Prado, whose superb play ousted Kelly Johnson from his starting role at second base, is still settling in as an everyday player. The new role hasn't fazed Prado a bit. Since finding out he'd be a regular, Prado is batting .371 with a .979 OPS. He was even named National League Player of the Week shortly after taking over for Kelly Johnson.
Upon returning to Atlanta from the break, the Braves held a closed-door team meeting. It's hard know exactly what's said in situations like this, but "timely hitting" seemed to be the message from many in the clubhouse.
"We're excited about our team we have here. If we continue to get timely hits and great pitching like we've been getting all season long we should be in it towards the end," McCann said.
The Braves' overhauled starting pitching has been worth every penny. Three of their five starting pitchers currently on the roster have sub-3.00 ERAs, and their collective ERA was 3.85 going into the break.
Situational closing, or closing-by-committee, has also worked well for Bobby Cox. Rafael Soriano has 13 saves and Mike Gonzalez has nine. They're combined ERA is 2.36, with 60 and 56 strikeouts, respectively.
Since the pitching staff isn't broken and the Braves' bats have seemingly woken up, everyone is buzzing about what can happen in the National League East in the second half. If you listen carefully, you'll hear the whispers about Tim Hudson, who threw batting practice on Thursday and just completed a rehab start in Myrtle Beach on Sunday.
After throwing seven shutout innings on a night where the Braves honored Greg Maddux, Jair Jurrjens oozed optimism.
"I think things are going to change. If we keep playing like this I think the Phillies can go on a bad streak and we can tie things up," he said.
Failing that, there's still the wild card, a race Atlanta is only 4 1/2 games back in entering play Monday night. The Braves have plenty of reason for optimism, especially if the bats can continue to match the arms as they have in the first few days of the second half.
