The Atlanta Braves find themselves in a bit of a pickle as their once commanding lead in the NL East has shrunk to a mere three games. June hasn't been kind to them, but manager Walt Weiss is keeping his cool.
"I don't care what the division lead is," Weiss mentioned after a tough 3-2 loss to the San Francisco Giants. "It's early.
We knew we had a big lead early and there were several months to go."
The Braves were cruising earlier this season, sitting pretty atop the division since April 8 and being the first team to hit the 40-win mark. They even boasted MLB's best record heading into June.
But the past few weeks have been a different story. With a 9-13 record in June, the Braves are coming off a rough 1-5 West Coast trip and have only managed to win four out of 16 games since June 9.
Their bats have been quiet, scoring just 13 runs over a six-game stretch against San Diego and San Francisco.
Meanwhile, the Philadelphia Phillies have been making some noise. Following a managerial shake-up in late April, they've been climbing the standings. Just over a month ago, on May 22, the Phillies trailed the Braves by 10.5 games, but they've been closing the gap ever since.
Sunday's game highlighted some of the Braves' struggles. Despite ace Chris Sale's impressive outing-10 strikeouts and just one earned run over six innings-the Braves couldn't muster enough offense.
They managed only six hits against Giants' Robbie Ray and Caleb Kilian. Defensive miscues didn't help either, with third baseman Austin Riley and second baseman Ozzie Albies both committing throwing errors in the sixth inning, allowing two crucial Giants runs.
At the plate, Albies and Michael Harris II had tough at-bats that ended rallies and left runners stranded.
Weiss is aware that the Braves need to clean up their act, especially with the Phillies breathing down their necks. "These are the way things go when you're not going well," Weiss remarked.
"Their stuff falls and yours doesn't. That's just the way it is right now.
We don't have a lot of margin for error, even for scoring runs. Every run we give up is a big one because we're having a hard time scoring."
The Braves will need to tighten things up if they want to fend off the surging Phillies and hold onto their lead in the NL East.
In Other News...
Braves Entering A Stretch That Feels Far More Serious Than Expected
The Braves have reached a point where the broader standings debate feels a lot less important than the nightly evidence on the field. A road trip that yielded just seven runs in five games underscored how sharply the offense has slipped, and the June production has been so thin that Atlanta has spent more time trying to stop the bleeding than thinking about where it sits in the division. Walt Weiss has taken the same view, stressing that the priority is the clubs own performance, not the margin in the standings.
Atlantas issues also stretch beyond the lineup, with pitching questions lingering as the calendar moves toward the second half. The absence of Ronald Acua Jr. leaves an obvious hole in the middle of the order, but the larger question is whether the Braves can stabilize enough to avoid letting this stretch turn into something bigger. For now, the trade market remains in the background, not yet a real solution or even a serious conversation, which only adds to the sense that the next few weeks could tell us a lot about how far this team can lean on internal fixes. [Read more 🡒]
Braves Lefty Just Answered A Big Question About His Fast Rise
Briggs McKenzie has gone from draft-day curiosity to one of the Braves most interesting pitching developments almost overnight. The 2025 fourth-round pick has already climbed through Rookie ball, Low-A and High-A in just two months, a fast track that usually comes with at least one rough landing. For McKenzie, the first taste of High-A was bumpy enough to raise the obvious question about whether the jump had arrived too soon.
His third start at the level offered a much better answer. McKenzie settled in with eight strikeouts in 4.2 innings and finished by retiring six of his final 10 batters via punchouts, a sharp rebound that dropped his season ERA to 2.08 over 26 innings. The stuff still points to more growth ahead, too, with a curveball that misses plenty of bats, a fastball sitting in the 90-95 mph range and a low-80s changeup giving Atlanta plenty to work with as his rise keeps testing the limits of how quickly he can move. [Read more 🡒]