Atlanta Braves were up and down last week against the Mets and Giants

The Atlanta Braves were up and down last week. They swept the New York Mets on the road to jump into first place in the National League East for the first time in recent memory, only to be swept by the Giants in a three-game series at home.

On Monday morning, when all the dust had settled after the Giants series, surprisingly, Atlanta was still atop the NL East standings, with a one-game lead over the Phillies. While the Braves were busy getting clobbered by the Giants, the Phillies and Mets were struggling against the Nationals and Rockies, respectively, which is why Atlanta stayed in first place.

Atlanta had a travel day off on Monday but was scheduled to play a two-game set against Tampa Bay on Tuesday and Wednesday before heading down to Miami for a four-game series against the Marlins. Tampa Bay and the Marlins have both been struggling this season, so this week presents a good chance for the Braves to sandbag some much-needed wins.

Personnel-wise this week, the big news was all about former six-time All-Star Jose Bautista joining the Braves. He played third base against the Giants on Friday, Saturday and Sunday. At 37 years of age, Bautista is getting pretty long in the tooth for a Major Leaguer, but most Braves fans are hoping that he’ll play up to the way he played in his glory days with the Toronto Blue Jays.

Offensively, right fielder Nick Markakis is continuing to play well and has proved to be the team’s strongest bat. Through Monday he was batting .344 with 45 hits and 25 RBI to his credit. In the home run column, young second baseman Ozzie Albies was leading the team with 10 dingers under his belt.

On the pitching side of the coin, Sean Newcomb had the team’s lowest ERA (3.38), but Brandon McCarthy has the most wins so far this season. Through Monday, he was 4-1 overall. Of course, when it comes to pitching, everyone wants to know about strikeouts. As of Monday, Mike Foltynewciz was leading the team in that category with 43 K’s to his credit.

With that said, the SEC Baseball Tournament is right around the corner. This year’s tourney will be played May 22 through May 27 in Hoover. (If anyone has some tickets they want to donate to their friendly neighborhood sports writer, let me know!)

With just a few more weeks left in their regular season schedules, teams are fighting to improve their positions or struggling to make the cut. Only 12 of the 14 teams in the SEC get in the tournament and, as of Monday, Alabama’s hopes looked pretty dim. They were 6-18 in conference place and dead last in the SEC West standings.

No. 24-ranked Auburn, on the other hand, looked to be in good shape. They were 13-11 overall and tied for second in the SEC West. If the tournament had started on Monday with the standings as they were after Sunday’s games, Auburn would have matched up against South Carolina, the No. 11-ranked team in the country.

In the end, it’ll all shake out in the wash. Alabama’s exclusion from the tournament isn’t a foregone conclusion, but they will have to pick up some much-needed wins in their last two conference series against LSU and Ole Miss – and have some help from some other teams.