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Braves can't stop losing to everyone

As I said yesterday, during a slight stumble by the Nationals, it would be the perfect time for the Braves not to lose for an entire week. But indeed they have, and in fact, have started losing into the next one.

Atlanta has lost 13 of their last 18 games, and eight of their last eight. During this eight game debacle, they've been outscored 41-18; though four of the losses were by only one run.

They've spent every game on the road, with the first three in L.A., where they faced Clayton Kershaw and Zach Greinke. Then they spent three games in San Diego, where they did not face Clayton Kershaw, and did suffer their most humiliating loss of the trip, a 10-1 blowout in which Mike Minor was hacked apart by fairly nonthreatening Padres like Tommy Medica, who went 5-for-5 with two home runs.

Then it was off to Seattle for a pair, where Felix Hernandez turned the Braves lineup into hamburger meat,

They've got a surplus of .270-.280 hitters, and they don't have Dan Uggla anymore. B.J. Upton remains one of the league's premier, highly compensated disappointments. Freddie Freeman, after hitting .218 over the last month, has found the right gear and started hitting .300+ again over the last two weeks, which is good, but not, like, Ben Revere good.

#Phillies Ben Revere batting average: L35 games: .381 L54 games: .328 L65 games: .333 L81 games: .310 L108 games: .316 L162 games: .321

Julio Teheran has been bad, Jason Heyward has been bad, the run differential has been the third-worst in baseball, and the Braves have not been so bad a Braves team since they were leaving for road trips from Boston in 1949 (and they lost four of their eight losses that time to the Phillies).

Management seems less interested in improving the team and more interest in sending bribes to Cobb County commissioners, where the Braves hope to build a new stadium after fleeing Atlanta. And their upcoming schedule pits them against the resurfacing Nationals with Stephen Strasburg and Gio Gonzalez, and then the Dodgers again with a Greinke sequel.

We've known all along the Braves are streakier than a filthy window; when their home run swings don't hit the ball, they tend to strike out. If the Nationals, to whom the Braves are further away than the third place Marlins, just stay lukewarm for the next 50 games, the NL East will be the least interesting divisional "race" of September.