Braves-Cardinals rain delay disrupts Atlanta with absurd 27-hour schedule

As the rest of the Southeast begins to complain about the lack of rain, the Atlanta Braves will most likely blame their next 27 hours of hell on rain. Read my lips, because no lip syncing is necessary. Baseball is making Atlanta incredibly dirty by forcing them to play a doubleheader in St. Louis, before a make-up game in Chicago, before their three-game homestand against Pittsburgh.

Atlanta has been playing some great baseball lately. Before losing Game 1 to the St. Louis Cardinals, the Braves had won eight of their last ten games. Unfortunately, a poor inning from rookie Spencer Schwellenbach culminated in a 4-3 loss to the Redbirds on Monday night. Then the sky opened. Or not. Who cares ? The Braves are scheduled to play a doubleheader Tuesday before Chicago.

Although Reynaldo Lopez’s Monday night start was pushed back to Wednesday afternoon, the nightcap for the nightcap will be Bryce Elder, a man who has been largely terrible on the mound since being named All-Star. NL star last year. Then on Thursday, Chris Sale will face his former team the Chicago White Sox in the middle of the afternoon. After that, Atlanta will finally return home.

Atlanta will play three games in 27 hours, in almost certainly stifling heat. Great job, MLB!

The way the pitch plan is set up, it puts even more pressure on Lopez and Sale to get it done.

The Braves’ next day off is Monday before their series against the visiting San Francisco Giants.

As frustrating as this season has been for the Braves, there’s still no excuse, even if baseball really makes it a challenge for them. Since when did Rob Manfred care about anyone other than himself? Player safety, sport integrity? Never mind. It’s about a group of grown men playing a child’s game for a piece of metal. Surely there was a better plan than this, right?

The travel schedule for baseball will always be brutal, but you would think that over the course of several generations, we may have found a better way to do it. At least Atlanta doesn’t have to play a standalone game in Seattle because some idiot in Washington forgot to close the retractable roof before getting home from work for the day. We should be very grateful!

Ultimately, Atlanta has no choice but to lock down and show great composure in a truly difficult situation. Baseball doesn’t care about its players or fans because it’s all about covering their opulent three-piece suits with even more cash or plastic that is very expensive in the modern age of life. It all starts with Lopez doing what he does by giving the Braves a quality start. Let’s hope the bats aren’t sleeping.

I’m warning you that something this incredibly stupid is going to happen in Atlanta by Friday.