MLB Playoff Picture: Braves' Brutal September Will Have Happy Ending

With the baseball regular season consisting of 162 games, teams are always going to have hot and cold stretches.

But when you have a cold stretch in the last month of the season—like the Atlanta Braves did—things look worse than they are, because you don't have time to turn things around.

The Braves entered September with an 81-55 record, second-best in the National League, and an eight-and-a-half game lead over the Cardinals in the Wild Card race.

But they have gone 8-17 in their last 25 games and find themselves tied with the Cardinals entering the final day of the regular season. This team has no momentum going whatsoever.

The Braves have been beaten down in their current series with the Phillies, who have long since clinched the National League East and home-field advantage in the postseason.

As bleak as things look entering Wednesday night's game, hope is not lost. All it takes is one good game by the Braves and one bad game by the Cardinals for all the bad things to be forgotten.

And, as Mark Bradley of the Atlanta Journal Constitution writes, the Braves are not in unfamiliar territory with a win-and-in scenario.

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"Looking on the bright side—and even finding a bright side takes concentrated effort—there’s this: If any team in the history of baseball knows how to win the 162nd game of a season behind Tim Hudson after losing two to the Phillies and entering Game No. 162 tied for the Wild Card after blowing a massive lead … well, the Braves are that team. Because they did it last season."

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There are a lot of similarities between this year's Braves team and last year's. For instance, both have blown big leads in the final month of the season.

In 2010, the Braves led the East by as many as seven games, and held a three-game lead entering September, but the Phillies passed them and took the division.

The Braves will have their best pitcher, Tim Hudson, on the mound Wednesday night taking on Joe Blanton. 

The Phillies are not likely to play their starters in this game, and if they do, they won't play the whole game, so the Braves will be handed a win on a silver platter.

The Cardinals, meanwhile, will have their best pitcher, Chris Carpenter, pitching against Houston tonight.

It seems likely that we are headed for a one-game playoff, which would be played in St. Louis, and anything can happen in that scenario.

The Braves are the deeper team and, despite being the road team, would have a distinct advantage in a one-game playoff.

For some reason, perhaps stupidity or wishful thinking (since I picked the Braves to go to the World Series before the season started), I believe that the Braves will put all the bad feelings they have right now behind them and find a way to make this dark September a little brighter by winning two straight games to make it into the postseason.

How far they advance is another story entirely. But at least they will be there.