What is a Pennant Race?

A friend asked me the other day, jokingly, “What is a pennant race?”

What indeed.

When your team (in this case the Atlanta Braves) is watching a large lead for the final playoff slot slip away in the waning hours of late September, it’s a bit like a modern version of that old 50’s game show “Beat the Clock.”

In late August, the Braves had mostly given up aspirations of catching the N.L. East leading Philadelphia Phillies and had their sights set on the N.L. wildcard slot. On August 25, the Braves held a seemingly insurmountable 9 ½ game lead over the trailing St. Louis Cardinals.

As an aside, the Cards USED to lay claim to the title “Jeff’s team” before uber control freak/micromanager/anti-everything Tony LaRussa took over as their manager. But I digress.

As we know, it is a given that in any race no lead is TRULY insurmountable…just ask the ’51 Dodgers or ’78 BoSox.

As August turned to September, funny things started happening in THIS race. The Braves bats HAD BEEN very hot in late August. Then, Hurricane Irene took a turn for the northeastern U.S coast and shut down most everything, including pennant races.

The Braves had two games rained out versus the Mets. Their hot bats took a strange, unscheduled 3-day break and promptly went into a community slump. Meanwhile, two of Atlanta’s stalwart starting pitchers – Jair Jurrjens and Tommy Hansen – went on the disabled list and an already overworked bullpen was stretched even thinner.

Then, they hit a stretch of their schedule where all the other teams were rolling.

The previously slumping Dodgers came to town the first weekend of September and they took two of three from the Bravos. Following that series, Atlanta headed to Philly, where they were promptly swept. The final game of that series was especially tough to swallow as the Braves led the game late by a score of 2-1. Philly rallied and won the game in the 9th inning 3-2.

After making up the two rainouts with the Mets (and fortunately winning them), Atlanta went on to St. Louis where they were, again, swept. They lost both the Friday and Saturday games by agonizing 4-3 scores (the Friday loss was another rally, another walk-off).

Fueled by that sweep, the El Birdos went on a tear. To date, they are 13-5 September while the Braves continue to lose steam.  During the same time period, Atlanta is 8-12.  

By the time my daughter, Holly and I took a trip down to see a weekday game against the Marlins at Turner Field, the lead had slipped to 4 ½.  We saw the Braves win that day but they’ve basically alternated wins and losses while the Cardinals seem to win every day.

The Braves continue to lose in demoralizing ways, too. On Monday night, for example, with two outs in the 9th at Florida, Chipper Jones lost a high chopping ground ball in the lights. Next batter = Walk off two run homer.

Their once insurmountable lead is down to 2 ½ games with 7 to play. Their magic number is 6 with a week to go.

Like I said, NO lead is insurmountable. The only thing on the Braves side right now, as the song says, is time.

So back to my friend’s question ‘What IS a pennant race? “ Answer: Beat the clock.

JG

(Source: atlantabraves.com)

Originally posted 9/21/2011