National League East in for wild ride
Braves surge to top as Nationals stumble,
ATLANTA John Schuerholz, the president of the Atlanta Braves, has been in professional baseball for 50 years, so he has seen his share of fast, stumbling and baffling starts to a season.
Schuerholz says teams need to get through their rotation several times and evaluate their lineups for at least 20 games, perhaps a month, before judgments can be made about pretenders and contenders.
The way the madcap National League East has started, you wonder if two months will be enough of a sample to get this division sorted out.
On a day when every player at Turner Field wore Jackie Robinson’s No. 42 to honor the baseball icon, making it a test for fans to tell some players apart, it is a test two weeks into the season to tell teams apart in the NL East.
The Braves, written off before the season started after dealing sluggers Justin Upton, Jason Heyward and Evan Gattis and closer Craig Kimbrel, have put together a robust club of complementary pieces that co-leads the division with a 6-3 record. Atlanta, which masterfully rebuilt its farm system in the process of overhauling its major league roster, does not look so forlorn.
Meanwhile, the Washington Nationals, who were supposed to lord over the East, are on the bottom of this upside-down division at 3-6, tied with two other teams. In the offseason, the Nationals added Max Scherzer to a stout rotation, prompting Bryce Harper to declare, “Where’s my ring?” Whoops. While the Braves led the majors in defensive fielding percentage going into Wednesday, the Nationals have defensive issues at one of the most vital positions on the field, shortstop. The preseason prognostications did not account for Ian Desmond’s baffling lapses with the glove (six errors). The Nationals, who have committed an NL-worst 10 errors in nine games, could still obliterate the rest of the division with their talent, but it might not be the walk everyone envisioned.
The Miami Marlins awoke from a 1-6 start to beat the Braves in back-to-back games here Tuesday and Wednesday and, perhaps, exposed the back end of the Atlanta rotation. Miami had baserunners galore in the two wins, scoring 14 runs without benefit of a home run from slugger Giancarlo Stanton.
“Unpredictable. It’s going to be an unpredictable summer,” Marlins third baseman Martin Prado said. “Never play the game on paper. There are injuries and all kinds of things that can happen.”
Injuries, indeed.
There was euphoria in Queens for the New York Mets until AllStar third baseman David Wright injured his hamstring on a stolenbase attempt Tuesday, an injury general manager Sandy Alderson estimated would sideline Wright three weeks. The injury took some of the charm off the Mets’ encouraging start and the dominant return of ace Matt Harvey, who won his first two starts, though the Mets (6-3) won Wednesday to tie for the lead.
The Nationals started the season without third baseman Anthony Rendon and outfielders Denard Span and Jayson Werth, who returned Monday. They lost reliever Craig Stammen to right forearm stiffness Wednesday.
The Marlins have the return of ace Jose Fernandez to look forward to around the All- Star break. He is coming back from Tommy John elbow surgery and will be held to a pitch limit, so how do you factor that into the race?
In the Atlanta clubhouse Wednesday, third baseman Chris Johnson and outfielder Kelly Johnson rallied around the no- tion that games are decided on the field.
“We were one of those teams picked on the lower end of the division, but we like what we can do, and we’re trying to take care of ourselves right now,” Chris Johnson said. “Obviously, teams are going to turn it around. You can see the Nationals starting to swing the bat.
“We have a good team. We don’t have the superstars, but we play good team baseball. If we can keep that up and keep our egos out of the equation, we’ll win ballgames.”
“There’s definitely a lot of what ifs in our division,” said Kelly Johnson, who homered in a 6-2 loss to the Marlins. “That goes for every team.
“Everyone has picked who is going to finish 1-2-3-4-5, but I have been on plenty of teams where we were picked last and ‘Oh, whoops,’ we won.”
“It’s going to be an unpredictable summer. Never play the game on paper.” Marlins third baseman Martin Prado, on the National League East