It's Do Or Die For The Atlanta Braves

Talk about buzz kill. This team that was scorching-hot coming out of the blocks in the second half has all of a sudden hit a brick wall.

The Marlins series, which was ruined by terrible officiating, currently stands as the beginning of the end for the '09 season.

Sure, the Marlins are hot right now. But there's no way the Braves should have lost two of three in that series. Of course they would not have lost at least one of those without some help from the men in blue.

But then they came home to face the real men in blue, the Dodgers, and seemingly laid down and allowed L.A. to run all over them as well.

The loss to Jason Schmidt, whose ERA was over seven going into that matchup, might just come back to haunt this Atlanta team. There's no way he should have thrown a one-hitter against a hot offensive club.

But it happened. And now the Braves have lost five of seven since beginning the second half 7-3.

The next two games at San Diego and the four that follow at Los Angeles will tell the tale of the Atlanta Braves in 2009. After watching the baserunning blunders and the utter loss of the ability to hit in Monday night's opener, things cannot be looking up for the Braves.

Atlanta is currently five-and-a-half games back in the wild card, tied with two other teams; and behind four pretty good clubs.

The recipe is simple for the Braves from here on out.

Win. It's do or die.