Braves Stay Alive in Playoff Chase
Major League Baseball's regular season ends next Sunday, and it might be Sunday night before we know if the Braves will be going to the playoffs. They're actually still mathematically alive in the NL east race... 4 games behind the Phillies who lost to Houston Monday night... but their more realistic shot is in the wildcard race where they started Monday 2-and-a-half games behind the Colorado Rockies, who had the night off.
The Braves took advantage of that and picked up a half-game, beating the Marlins in Atlanta, where they'll be playing all of their remaining regular season games.
The Braves scored a pair of first-inning runs on the 3rd place Marlins on a ground out and a sac fly.... Chipper Jones hit the first pitch of the 3rd inning out of the park... his 18th home run of the season.
Jair Jurrgens made sure that was enough offense... he threw 7 shutout innings, giving up just 5 hits.
The Braves tacked on an insurance run on an 8th inning bases-loaded walk to make it a 4-0 final... their 7th win in a row... their 15th win in their last 17 games.
If the Braves had done this back in June, when they went 11-and-15... shoulda, coulda, woulda. As it stands, they're 2 games behind the Rockies in the wildcard race with 6 games left.
