Braves' big week ends with the same old question

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The Atlanta Braves answered the question asked in this space 2-1 / 2 weeks ago: Are they still a good team? They have since won four out of five series. They have just finished a series of 13 games against Los Angeles, Arizona, St. Louis and Milwaukee – all those with a score above .500 – by scoring a score of 8 to 5, and that's all. was to be swept to LA. They drew 2-1 / 2 first-place games in Philadelphia and put a space between them and the Mets and the nationals.

Yes, it's a good team.

"We have been playing baseball very well for a while now," coach Brian Snitker said Sunday after a 3-2 loss to the Brewers in 10 innings. "It was what I had imagined three weeks ago."

Freddie Freeman, who scored for his fourth straight game, said: "When the other teams see us on the program, they have to think, 'This is a difficult step for us. "

On Sunday, we found reason to believe that this club could still improve: Mike Foltynewicz, star player last season, had his best game of 2019. He gave a first try at home on a run 94 miles to Christian's speed. Yelich, who kills everyone, and fifth in round five of rookie Keston Hiura, about what Foltynewicz called a "get-over" type slider. And that was it. Six innings, two earned runs, three hits – the Braves will take it and go with it.

After that, there was a lot of talk about what Foltynewicz did differently. "It's been a long week," Snitker said. "They worked a lot on his mechanics … he was taller than rubber."

Freeman: "He was getting a little more in the legs."

Foltynewicz: "My hands were in a better position. All my fields came out much better.

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Height, legs, hands. Bottom line: Something had changed. Snitker said, "It's as positive as I've been with him this year."

Alas, Foltynewicz was gone after 67 shots. He began to feel dizzy and his attack at the bottom of the sixth only exacerbated his vertigo. His release left three innings (four, as it turned out) in place of the besieged pen, and Luke Jackson – the best of this lot – was not available after working the previous two nights.

Jerry Blevins, who was not named for Tuesday and was due to appear on Saturday, was named for seventh place. He had two outs and gave up two hits, causing a call from Touki Toussaint, who escaped that run and qualified eighth.

Jacob Webb started the ninth and was hit by two singles, setting the start to third with a withdrawal. Hiura's volley in the center was not deep enough to score Yasmani Grandal, a catcher for which the Brewers had not played with a paintbrush. Then Webb threw a ball that bounced so happily that Tyler Flowers was able to retrieve it and throw Grandal, which was broken for the house and turned around.

This is where the luck of the Braves ended. The Brewers called the driver Josh Hader, who had been beaten by Freeman on the evening of the 10th and 17 hours later, Hader was untouchable again. He pulled the Braves, including Freeman, in the ninth. Ben Gamel, who was in front of the plate when Grandal was caught in third, hit the first pitch he saw from Wes Parsons over the fence of the center field. Hader came back for another 10th. This time he sailed.

"It was a good week at SunTrust Park," said Freeman afterwards, and even with that defeat, it was absolutely. The Braves took four of the six high-caliber opponents. Mike Soroka and Max Fried continued to win. Foltynewicz still looked terrific. Austin Riley has made the biggest splash of all Braves number 27 since the arrival of Fred McGriff and the fire of the press. A week before Memorial Day, there is little reason to doubt that this team will play serious games in September.

Indeed, there is only one reason, and yes, you guessed it well. The day the opponent rolled out a relief, the Hader All-Star, the Braves used four. Three were hit for two shots each. That happened at the end of a week that saw three throwers – Blevins on Tuesday, Jesse Biddle on Wednesday, Venters on Saturday – either in DFA version be totally released.

In his newsletter, baseball writer Joe Sheehan lamented the state of throwing relief among the teams expected to face in the east of the NL. (He and a few friends sought to form a competent group among the four sources, and they drew up a list of seven relief people, not one Brave.

The Braves wardrobe was not a lockout deal last year, but it was better than that. (Last year's turnaround was 4.15, at 4.59 this year.) We just saw a team wake up after a tough start to the game – Snitker explained why he pushed Ronald Acuna to take the lead 10 days ago: "I felt stagnant; it was like doing the same thing and hoping for different results "- and we have just taken a refresher course on the talents of this team. But we are in 2019, and each game comes down in record time.

It's clear that the Braves do not like what they have as backup options; otherwise, they would not change the composition. It is also clear that they consider Craig Kimbrel as a last resort, and we have debated these arguments for and against so often that all eyes have been scrambled. But the lesson of the best week of this calendar year team is the same as it was, the same as it will be until someone moves to fix it.

The Braves have the goodness to come back in October, assuming the office allows it, which could be more than a reasonable assumption. This could be hope against hope.