Welp! Around this time last year, we were keeping tabs on what other teams in the NL Wild Card race were getting up to as our Atlanta Braves were right in the thick of a topsy-turvy race to the Postseason that culminated with a dramatic doubleheader that took place the Monday after the regular season ended for the other big league clubs.
There will be no such drama for the Braves here in 2025. As fate would have it, this year’s Braves squad has been doomed to failure and are nowhere near where they
would’ve figured they would’ve (or should’ve) been once this time of the season was coming around. Instead of fighting for their Postseason lives, they will now be playing for ping-pong balls (or whatever MLB uses in their process) in next season’s MLB Draft Lottery. As of right now, the Braves have the fourth-best odds with a record of 66-83. Here’s a look at how all the other teams that the Braves could feasibly swap spots with are doing so far. Steel yourselves — we will be covering some ugly baseball here, as the teams we’ll be keeping an eye on are the Pittsburgh Pirates, Minnesota Twins, Baltimore Orioles, Miami Marlins and Sacramento Athletics. Reader beware, sickos are welcome.
Nationals 4, Pirates 3
Box Score | Savant | Condensed Game
Nick Gonzales got the Pirates off to a good start in this one with an RBI triple that plated two Buccos. He then made it home on a Wild Pitch to make it 3-0. Things were going well! Those happy feelings lasted for all of 10 minutes as Washington responded with three runs in the bottom of the second to tie it up at three. That’s how it stayed for a while as starters Mike Burrows and Cade Cavalli made no further big mistakes. ONce the eighth inning rolled around, the Pirates had a chance to score when Oneil Cruz hit a double with two outs but nothing came of it. That’s when the Nationals responded by cashing in a leadoff walk from James Wood with a double from Daylen Lile in order to give the lottery-ineligible Nationals a late-stage win over the Pirates.
Diamondbacks 6, Twins 4
Box Score | Savant | Condensed Game
The Twins didn’t lead for long in this one but boy, they sure gave the Diamondbacks fits at every step of the way. Arizona went ahead in the first inning but then Minnesota delivered two runs in the second inning to go ahead — Byron Buxton’s speed forced Jordan Lawler into a bad throw that helped push across the go-ahead run. As usual for the teams involved in this race, the good times didn’t last for long. A James McCann home run helped put the Diamondbacks back in front with a three-run fourth inning and from that point forward, Arizona resisted every counter-punch that the Twins threw at them in order to hold on to the win.
Athletics 7, Reds 4
Box Score | Savant | Condensed Game
From the fourth through the seventh inning, this was a game that looked like a report card that would make any parent happy: It was all A’s. Nick Kurtz continued to bolster his runaway case for AL Rookie of the Year as he added another homer to his tally this season — it may not have gone 493 feet like his grand slam on Saturday that broke the game open, but all home runs are beautiful in their own way so the fans in Sacramento probably weren’t complaining about it at all. Kurtz’s home run put the A’s in front and then Brent Rooker plated Kurtz with a dinger of his own to deliver the knockout shot that brought us to our eventual final score. The A’s have won four straight now — which for these standings isn’t exactly the best thing in the world but again, I’d say A’s fans would say it’s worth it to see Kurtz continue to crack dingers like this.
Tigers 2, Marlins 0
Box Score | Savant | Condensed Game
The only real solace that the Marlins can take from this one is that Adam Mazur arguably had his best start as a Marlins starter so far. The Tigers scored two runs but none of those runs were credited to Mazur — instead, the Tigers got on the board thanks to, well, y’all just watch this:
Lord.
Anyways, the Marlins lineup had absolutely nothing going on against Keider Montero and then they were unable to consistently get a rally started once Montero had left the game. They won the xBA battle but lost the war.
Blue Jays 11, Orioles 2
Box Score | Savant | Condensed Game
The Orioles completed a sad-sack series in Baltimore with a complete capitulation against the Blue Jays. Baltimore snatched defeat from the jaws of victory on Saturday but they didn’t even get close to winning here on Sunday. Coby Mayo did actually give Baltimore the early lead in this one but from the third inning onward, it was all Jays as Toronto proceeded to blast Baltimore with 11 runs across the next five innings. This included six in the seventh inning, as the first seven Blue Jays batters to show up to the plate all reached base safely and six of them scored. It was as if Colton Cowser’s homer in the top half of that same frame was enough to spur the Blue Jays into really putting pedal to the medal in order to complete the sweep. This was a bad series for Baltimore’s morale but pretty good for their Lottery hopes!
So there you have it! A lot of tragic baseball on display on Sunday afternoon with only the A’s and our own Braves escaping with a victory. The A’s have been the big mover in recent days after winning four straight, while Orioles fans can at least take solace in the fact that a sweep helped get them closer to the Braves for the fourth spot. The fourth spot is crucial since only the top four spots in the Lottery rankings have double-digit percentage odds. Top 5 would still be a fine landing spot for the Braves but why settle for the money spots when the “Gold medal” is right there for the taking?
Here’s a look at the standings. We’re not going to be covering the White Sox regularly because they essentially have the top lottery odds (26.83 percent) on lock at 57-93. Also, Colorado, Washington and the Angels are both ineligible for a Top 10 pick in this season’s lottery, so there’s that.
Pirates | 65-85 | .433 Win% | 21.54% Lottery Odds
Twins | 65-84 | .436 Win% | 16.26% Lottery Odds
Braves | 66-83 | .443 Win% | 12.20% Lottery Odds
Orioles | 69-80 | .463 Win% | 6.34% Lottery Odds
Marlins | 70-80 | .467 Win% | 4.39% Lottery Odds
Athletics | 70-80 | .467 Win% | 2.93% Lottery odds
