Now that’s a little more like it.

Ronald Acuña, Jr. is a machine that hits doubles and home runs. I mean, he did throw in an infield single for good measure, but still.

The rest of the lineup is looking primed to come alive as well. Freddie still looks a little discombulated at the plate to me, but he creamed a hanging curveball. The Braves bench, which over the course of 162 will probably still be proving to lack some power, how has 3 HRs in 8 games, and a guy primarily on the team for his versatility (Adrianza) followed up an excellent spring with the homer that broke the game open.

The most baffling thing on the evening was a solid, seasoned manager like Joe Girardi plum forgetting that he’d been to the mound already in the 5th inning. I was watching and wondering what he was doing out there after Zack Wheeler had gotten to a 2-0 count to Dansby, and as it turns out, so was Dansby. And the home plate umpire. Phillies fans had to have had flashes back to the Gabe Kapler days, but at least Girardi already had a reliever ready go. If I had to guess, he was planning to tell Wheeler that was going to be his last batter and then he was going to take him out if he didn’t end the inning, and departed the dugout before anyone could grab him.

I didn’t miss the chop in 2020. Yeah, I’ve still got a foam tomahawk laying around, but I’m not sure for how much longer. I’ve been watching Braves baseball since I was five, but I’ve grown and matured over the years. And if the fact that it is offensive doesn’t work for you, then how about this: Ted Turner stole it from Florida State back in the late 70’s. And I don’t know about you, but I don’t feel a pressing need to take traditions from FSU.

Hey, it turns out you can also win baseball games!

The Braves and Nats played an old-school back-to-back doubleheader today, except for the fact that each game was only 7 innings. In the early game, Max Fried left after two innings pitched, but Acuna had himself a day and was all over the place. In the second game, the Braves survived a strong start by Strasbourg and themselves got 5 IP out of the “opener” Huscar Ynoa. The difference was a two run homer by Pablo Sandoval (two HR as a pinch hitter already!), and got the save from Sean Newcomb.

You know, just how they drew it up.

With these games starting at 9am Pacific, I missed most of the first game. The setup I have now is that I have the game on my TV (through MLB.tv on my Xbox One), so I usually just mute while I’m in meetings and talking to teammates. I’m finding myself looking forward to the games that start in the late afternoon, like they should.

0-4. It’s not a great spot. It was fun to watch most of this one, especially to see Acuña active throughout. But the offense dried up, and a bullpen that was impeccable last season was very vulnerable. One of these days we’re going to win one, right?

Well, I got paged again in the early morning, so I slept in to make up for it and missed the whole game. We’re now 0-3 for the first time since… 2019, when the Braves got swept to open the season by… the Philadelphia Phillies.

So this morning I got paged at 6am and was working the issue until 9am. Suffice it to say, I majorly slept in.

By the time I turned the TV on, the Braves were well on their way to being dominated by Zack Wheeler, and they didn’t put up much resistance after he came out. It was a moribund 4-0 loss.

Naturally, the off day yesterday that should have been boring wasn’t. As anyone who is reading this knows, MLB pulled the All-Star Game from Atlanta for this season as a protest against the Georgia legislature’s latest attempts to keep anyone who isn’t a white Republican from voting.

There were ways to register your disappointment with MLB’s move without embarrassing yourself. Indeed, local politicians like Stacey Abrams and Raphael Warnock did just that. Unfortunately, the Braves themselves did not. Despite likely knowing about it before anyone else, the statement they issued had was more along the lines of a child throwing a tantrum than a reasoned response to the issue. It will be interesting to see if they follow they same “crackdown, then backdown” line that other major Georgia corporations like Coca-Cola and Delta did over the past week. I’m not holding my breath, though.

You can make a reasonable argument that the new law isn’t that bad. Most of these arguments say that things like not being able to distribute food or water to voters waiting in line are gratuitous but not actually that big of a deal. Perhaps in a vacuum, they are now. But let’s consider that the same Legislature that created those lines also passed this law, and then let’s consider that this is just the latest in a long line of attempts at disenfranchisement that has been going on for over a century. I think it’s completely reasonable to consider this context, and when you do, you’re not going to get the benefit of the doubt.