LEADING OFF
When the Atlanta Braves fell — kerplunk! — to six games under .500 a couple weeks ago, people looked at veteran first baseman Julio Franco as if he'd just swallowed the resin bag when he suggested the team could just as easily reel off 11 straight wins.
The skeptics were correct, of course. Atlanta hasn't done that.
They've come close, though. Since hitting rock bottom with a 3-10 skid, they've won 11 of their last 14. And that's been good enough to get them right back into the middle of the race.
It remains to be seen whether this is another one of those patented Braves surges that leaves the rest of the National League East gasping for air or just the sort of unlikely spike that has raised the hopes of teams like the Devil Rays, Reds, Brewers, Pirates and others at various points during a season in which parity has been sometimes difficult to distinguish from parody.
After all, in the last two years the Braves have waved goodbye to Gary Sheffield, Javy Lopez, Tom Glavine, Greg Maddux and Kevin Millwood.
"We're doing the little things a lot better now than we were earlier in the year," righthander Russ Ortiz said.
That's part of it. The Braves also have had to deal with injuries. Chipper Jones and first baseman Adam LaRoche have been on the disabled list. Second baseman Marcus Giles is still sidelined. Shortstop Rafael Furcal missed some time early. Paul Byrd didn't make his first start of the season until June 19. And starter Mike Hampton, projected as a big part of the rotation, is 3-8 with a 5.56 earned run average.
Atlanta didn't panic, though. And now Los Bravos are well-positioned to make another run.
"We're starting to play more consistent, solid baseball," said All-Star catcher Johnny Estrada. "We've got some new faces in here and it just feels like there's a lot more energy going through the clubhouse."
Injuries and a lack of production have made it likely that Chipper's streak of eight consecutive seasons with 100 or more RBI will end this year. "I let that go a long time ago," he said.
He also has another, even more impressive, streak working. Through Little League, high school, the minors and the majors, he's never been on a team that didn't finish first. "That one, I have not let go," he said.
Which can't be good news for the rest of the division.
HOT STUFF
Don't look for the first-place Cardinals to make a major move before the trading deadline, and not just because of payroll concerns. "I don't think we have any glaring weaknesses," GM Walt Jocketty said. "And you also have to worry about the club's chemistry."
The Giants are extremely concerned about how righthander Jason Schmidt, who is scheduled to start TODAY, will be used in the All-Star Game. Depending on how many pitches he throws in his start, manager Felipe Alou might call NL manager Jack McKeon to ask that Schmidt work sparingly, if at all, on Tuesday night.
The Expos reportedly are quietly shopping shortstop Orlando Cabrera and the Mariners are believed to have stepped up their efforts to move shortstop Rich Aurilia.
AROUND THE BASES
Marlins manager Jack McKeon has ripped into unnamed relievers for "whining and crying" about being overworked.
Pirates fans were enraged last season by the trade that sent Brian Giles to the Padres. But lefthander Oliver Perez and leftfielder Jason Bay are a big part of the Bucs' recent hot streak and Bay is in the running to become Pittsburgh's first-ever rookie of the year.
Diamondbacks owner Jerry Colangelo, on firing manager Bob Brenly last Friday: "The easy course would have been not to make a change until the end of the year. Quite honestly, there would have been a lot less controversy. But we felt it was the best thing and the right thing to make the change now."
QUOTE OF THE WEEK
Royals second baseman Tony Graffanino, on the fact that Kansas City has been shut out three straight times and has gone 1-13 with a .187 batting average since trading Carlos Beltran: "I've never been on a team where everybody stinks."
STAT OF THE WEEK
Cardinals All-Star third baseman Scott Rolen has 80 RBI. To put that in perspective, he needs to drive in just 30 more runs the rest of the season to equal his career best of 110, accomplished in both 1998 and 2002.
CASE STUDY OF THE WEEK
The Padres had an eight-game home winning streak halted on Wednesday night, which is interesting since this isn't a team that appears to be built for spacious Petco Park, which favors speedy gap hitters and power down the lines. When San Diego wins at home, as it has been doing lately, it's usually because of good pitching, superb up-the-middle defense and timely hitting. It also helps that Padres batters apparently have gotten over their earlier snit over the new park's ample dimensions. Visiting hitters are a different story. Houston's Jeff Bagwell, for example, was convinced he'd hit a two-run homer Wednesday night but Jay Payton caught the ball on the warning track in right-center. "I hit the ball about as good as I could hit it and it didn't get out," Bagwell said. "That's frustrating. Of course, I don't have to play here all the time."
FORESIGHT OF THE WEEK
Anaheim's Jarrod Washburn got his first shutout in his 146th career start against the White Sox on Wednesday. "I didn't want to be home 25 years from now, watching the Did You Know? segment on "SportsCenter," and see that I was the answer to the question, 'What pitcher had the most career starts without a shutout,' " he said.
CHEERS
For Brewers closer Dan Kolb. He made the All-Star team, on merit, after being released by the Rangers at the end of spring training in 2003.
He was signed to a minor league contract by the Brewers shortly afterward and was called up from Triple A Indianapolis on June 18, eventually working his way into the closer's role. But he had a sore elbow this spring and didn't even pitch in the first half of the exhibition schedule.
That convinced Kolb to dramatically alter his pitching style. Instead of trying to blow hitters away with his fastball, with the encouragement of pitching coach Mike Maddux, he began taking something off his deliveries instead.
The result: better control, lower pitch counts, quicker innings . . . and an 0.82 earned run average while converting 26 of 27 save opportunities.
JEERS
To the Diamondbacks' offense. The Snakes scored just six runs while being swept at Dodger Stadium this week, including being one-hit by Kaz Ishii on Wednesday night.
That could happen to anybody. But it's the way they've gone about being shut down that bothers first baseman Shea Hillenbrand, who got the only hit off Ishii, a clean single in the fifth.
"We didn't have any approaches. A lot of our hitters didn't have a plan," he noted. "There's no excuse for that. You've got to be accountable for your at-bats. We've got to know how to play the game right. It's getting old. It's getting very old."
BY THE NUMBERS
4 — Cleveland Indians (C.C. Sabathia, Victor Martinez, Ron Belliard, Matt Lawton) on the All-Star team. Not bad for a team with a $34 million payroll that lost 94 games last year.
8 — Tigers ejected in Detroit's last five games through Wednesday.
22 — Different pitchers used by the Texas Rangers, after calling righthander Nick Regilio up from Triple A Oklahoma City.
34 — Innings without a walk for Houston's Roy Oswalt before giving up two bases on balls in the eighth inning Wednesday night.
47 — Home runs allowed by the Indians bullpen this year.
FINALLY
Why was Angels first baseman Darin Erstad so fired up to face White Sox lefthander Scott Schoeneweis Wednesday night at U.S. Cellular Field?
Well, it seems that even in backyard Wiffle ball, Erstad has only struck out four times in a game once. That came 10 years ago when he was playing for the Falmouth Commodores of the Cape Cod Summer League. Schoeneweis was pitching for the Chatham A's. It was the first time Erstad had ever seen a sinker from a lefthanded pitcher, and he whiffed in four straight at-bats.
"I had no idea what hit me," he said, adding that after the game he was so upset that he tossed his batting gloves, shoes, socks and everything else he had worn except his team-issued uniform into the trash.
Wednesday was a chance to get even, the first time he had faced Schoeneweis since. He didn't exactly get revenge, though, walking and grounding out to short in his only two plate appearances against the Sox starter. Still, he pronounced himself satisfied.
"We won. That's all that matters. And I didn't strike out," he said.