ATLANTA – Dansby Swanson, the dynamic Atlanta Braves shortstop who had gone on a tear after the All-Star break, was in a slump. An OPS over .800 through the first five months of the season had given way to a 3-for-27 stretch as the calendar flipped to September. With his team sitting precariously atop the volatile NL East, Swanson started pressing. Which, of course, only made matters worse.
“When you have high expectations, you feel like you can succeed every time, even though it's not reality,” Swanson said recently. “So it's hard to maintain perspective when those times come.