As they begin play on Friday night, the Braves will find themselves in depressingly familiar territory for this 2021 season: four games under .500, in a morass of flailing teams in the division, and five-plus games back in the division. With the Fangraphs playoff odds hovering between 10 and 15 percent, and the Braves failing again and again to reel off a clump of victories without offsetting losses, things are getting increasingly more dire... but with the deluge of injuries inundating the Braves, there’s not much they can do. The time to reel off those wins was apparently earlier in the season, as it’s going to be increasingly hard to do so when the rotation depth has been shredded by the absences of Mike Soroka, Max Fried, Huascar Ynoa, Tucker Davidson, and even Touki Toussaint.
Smyly looks to stay solid against Reds
