There is no spin to put on the past five games. We went up to Toronto and got smacked around. We went down to Atlanta and got the tar beaten out of us.
The Braves are a team that's starting to play good ball, we're a team that's stopping. We were never in the game today. We were never really in the game yesterday until the ninth inning. We were never in Friday's game. The Braves, to be perfectly blunt and honest, whipped our asses all over Turner Field for three games.
Luckily, we're going back home and the lame-o Yankees are coming to town, pitching Pavano, Wang and Mussina, in that order, against Cabrera, Ponson and Penn. Moose-Penn is an interesting matchup on a couple levels. Old v. young, the last Oriole ace (and man, he's been gone for five years now - seems like yesterday, doesn't it?) v. the guy who might be the Oriole ace for a long time someday soon.
Now I admit I don't know a whole lot about what it takes to stay in the race, but I know for sure you can't lose five games in a row too often, or at least I'd strongly suspect so. We're reeling, and maybe we're on the ropes confidence-wise, but there's a lot of ball left to be played this year. Cliches! But seriously, it ain't over until the fat lady sings, and ya gotta believe.