As Acuña put it after he won the game: “¡Increíble!”

It’s hard to say that something is a “must win” in May during baseball season, but this was about as close it got. Getting swept by the Mets at home definitely would’ve been a major issue. In a game where the offense finally decided to start making some contact with the baseball, they still ultimately scratched and clawed there way back into the game.

They’ll play four more in a row against the Pirates before finally getting an off day.

I think it’s getting about time to worry.

I felt pretty good after winning the first two games in Milwaukee. It helped too the Mets were losing at the time.

The rails kinda came off on Sunday, though. Sure, Braves almost made a spectacular rally, but apparently this happened after Ynoa had his worst start of the season so far:

Huascar Ynoa broke a bone in his pitching hand when he punched the dugout bench in frustration after coming out of Sunday’s game. He will be out a couple of months, #Braves manager Brian Snitker said. “It’s a shame,” Snitker said. “Probably nobody that feels any worse than him.”

— David O’Brien (@DOBrienATL) May 17, 2021

Well, Max Fried will be on the hill tonight to follow up his recent good work against those self-same division leading Mets.

Well, the Blue Jays are pretty good. And we aren’t, apparently.

That was almost certainly the best game the Braves have played all season.

Sure, it didn’t feel that way when Andrew McCutchen put the first pitch of the game into the seats. But Ynoa settled in and got the next three outs (on the way to another gem of a performance: 6 IP, 6K, 1BB, 1R, and another hit for good measure).

Then the Braves put in an A-B-C baseball performance in the bottom of the first:

• Acuña walked, then stole second
• Freddie singled to center, scoring Acuña and tying the game at 1
• Ozzie Albies, on a swing that he didn’t really even follow through on, split the right centerfield gap. Freddie scores easily from second and Ozzie slides into third without a throw. 2-1.
• Dansby got ’em in… with a homer to deep left center. 4-1.

Freddie would get another RBI on a homer, and Austin Riley would get a hit and an RBI, but the damage was done.

Oh, and Tyler Matzek made the play of the game on this comebacker:

PITCHERS ARE ATHLETES TOO pic.twitter.com/0xJLRW6urk

— Cut4 (@Cut4) May 10, 2021

Next up for the Braves are an off day followed by 13 games in 13 days, including a quick jaunt to Milwaukee. Rest up, Bravos, you’ll need it.