Thirteen more wins. As simplistic as that sounds – and probably even irrelevant – it’s important to remember that reference point.
All the Atlanta Braves need to do to have a .500 season is win 13 more games than they did last year, when they finished 68-93.
Sure, last year has nothing to do with this year. But it’s the memory of the past two seasons, in which the Braves went 135-188, that made this year’s 1-6 start seem especially deflating. Each loss brought more thoughts of “it’s going to be a long summer.” The Toronto Blue Jays lost nine of their first 10, but nobody’s writing them off just yet.