That was the Braves' past week at home in Atlanta, where they took three from the hapless Nationals before getting swept by the surging Marlins, whose majors-best 8-1 record matches the start by the '97 Marlins World Series team (which I covered, and it seems like yesterday when rookie Edgar Renteria hit that game-ending RBI single up the middle in Game 7 against Cleveland....)

Now, the Braves have taken their act back on the road to face the Pirates here in Steel City, where the Pittsburgh LaRoches were just outscored 10-4 by the Astros in losing the last two games of a three-game series that ended Thursday.

After further review, who'll win the NL East?

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Marlins

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It's a gorgeous, sunny afternoon, temps in the low 60s and climbing, and I can see one end zone of Heinz Field and the right-field corner of PNC Park from my 14th-floor hotel room here hard by the Alleghany River in downtown Pittsburgh.

We've got what should be a stellar pitching matchup on tap tonight, with Jair Jurrjens (2-0, 2.45) facing Pirates lefty Paul Maholm (1-0, 1.32). Unfortunately for the Braves , they might be facing Maholm without two of their best hitters, the injured Chipper Jones and Yunel Escobar.

Chipper's expected to miss his third consecutive game with that bruised left thumb and hand, though that's not a certainty.

Escobar is expected to be out after straining an abdominal muscle Thursday while doing that odd little hop-warmup thing he does in the ondeck circle, though that's also not a certainty. (That he'll miss the game, that is; that he hurt himself hopping, that much is certain.)

Escobar's hitting .343, including a NL-best 7-for-10 with runners in scoring position. By the way, of the top five RISP averages in the league, three belong to Marlins (Jorge Cantu, Dan Uggla and Hanley Ramirez, all above .600).

The Braves and Marlins rank first and second in the NL, respectively, in batting aveage with runners in scoring position, Atlanta at .382 and Florida at .347.

So it's not like the Fish are just doing it with starting pitching, although their starters' 2.98 ERA ranks second in the NL, behind the Cardinals' 2.86.

Meanwhile, Braves starters have slipped to fifth with a 3.71 ERA, and while their 50 strikeouts in 51 innings is impressive, their 27 walks is tied for the league-high for starting pitchers.

Marlins relievers (wasn't that supposed to be a team weakness?) rank fifth in the NL with a 3.38 ERA. Meanwhile, Braves relievers are 15th with a 6.60 ERA, and they've allowed 40 hits and 19 walks allowed in just 30 innings.

Pittsburgh hurlers rank in the NL's top four in both starting and relief ERA so far.

?? Jurrjens' road roll: Bet you folks didn't realize how good Jurrjens has been on the road. Since mid-June 2008, he's 6-2 with a 2.20 ERA in his past 10 road starts, with eight quality stats in that span.

One of his only two non-quality road starts in that period was his only road start this season, April 7 at Philly, where he gave up four hits in 5-2/3 scoreless innings (gotta go at least six innings, three earned runs or fewer, for a quality start).

On road roll

The Braves have scored at least four runs while he's been in the game in eight of those 10 starts, including six runs or more while he was in four of them.

Maholm, on the other hand, is Mr. Hard Luck for the Pirates. Dude has a 2.86 ERA in his past 10 starts (home and road) since early August, including nine quality starts. But he has just two wins to show for it. Two!

He's 2-2 in that 10-start stretch, and the Pirates scored two runs or fewer while he was in six of those games.

His last start was at Cincinnati on Saturday, and Maholm allowed one run and three hits in seven innings in that bandbox of a ballpark. He won that game.

The Braves will have Brian McCann back in the lineup tonight after he took a needed day off Thursday (at least from catching duties; he did pinch-hit).

McCann is 1-for-15 with one single and one RBI in the past five games, after going 6-for-15 with three doubles, two homers and six RBI in the first four games. Against lefties, he's 1-for-14.

?? Kid's skid: Rookie center fielder Jordan Schafer is 1-for-15 with 10 strikeouts and no walks in the past four games, after going 8-for-19 with two doubles, two homers, three walks and four strikeouts in his first five.

You had to expect him to go through hot-and-cold spells like this at the outset. Remember, this is a young guy who's played barely half a season above A-ball. He's got a load of talent, but he's going to have to make adjustments as teams develop scouting reports on him, and he knows that.

If history is any indication, Bobby Cox will probably stick with him until he hits his way out of the slump. Remember Kelly Johnson as a rookie?

In 2005, Johnson went 1-for-30 with one RBI in his first 11 games. Cox stayed with him despite plenty of howling from outsiders who said the then-outfielder should be benched.

Johnson went from that 1-for-30 slump in his first 11 games to hitting .353 (24-for-68) with five homers and 19 RBI in his next 17 games.

The difference in his slump and Schafer's --- other than being about three times as long as Schafer's little skid is right now --- was that Johnson only struck out three times in those first 30 at-bats, and had six walks in that 11-game span.

Cox talked every day about how good Johnson looked at the plate, how many balls he was hitting squarely, even though he wasn't getting hits to fall. Then, they started to fall.

Schafer's got to make more contact than he has the past four games, obviously, before anything's going to fall other than his average.

But he will. Takes time.

Boyer

?? Who'll go to make room? The Braves have to make a move to open a roster spot for Jo-Jo Reyes on Saturday, when Reyes will be added to the 25-man roster to start the middle game of the Pirates series in place of sore-armed Tom Glavine.

The odd man out could be reliever Blaine Boyer, who has struggled mightily in two of his three appearances this season, after struggling for the last 10 weeks of the 2008 season.

Boyer was charged with four runs while recording one out Wednesday against Florida, giving him a 40.50 ERA this season and an alarming 14.73 ERA in his last 25 appearances since July 26, 2008.

In those 25 games, he's given up 29 hits, 30 earned runs, seven homers and 10 walks in 18-1/3 innings, while recording 21 strikeouts. The Braves have a 4-21 record in those 25 games.

Boyer, 27, is out of options, which means the Braves would have to get him through waivers before he could be sent to the minors. There's probably a reasonable chance they could get him through without another team claiming him, though there's no way of knowing for sure without actually trying.

It's a risk the Braves might decide they're willing to take, given the depth of his struggles since late July. But all it takes is one team to decide that he's still reasonably young and has a power arm that's worth taking a shot at, since it's such a low-risk move to claim a player on waivers.

?? '97 Marlins vs. '09 Marlins: Speaking of that first Marlins World Series championship team, and the current team matching its 8-1 start, the similarities pretty much stop there.

That Marlins team had big-dollar free agents including Kevin Brown, Al Leiter, Alex Fernandez, Devon White and Bobby Bonilla, and late-season pickups Darren Daulton and Craig Counsell, and Jim Eisenreich on the bench, and closer Robb Nen, and homegrown standouts Edgar Renteria and catcher Charles Johnson (can you remember when C.J. was an All-Star?), not to mention manager Jim Leyland, who was hired away from his longtime job in Pittsburgh before that '97 season.

Leyland

This Marlins team is doing it with the lowest payroll in the majors and the second-youngest starting rotation. Fredi Gonzalez is doing a hell of a job, as is that front office (again) and that scouting department (again).

?? Record Store Day: It's unfortunate that my man Don had to shutter his Ella Guru record store a couple months ago, so close to something that's becoming a cool happening --- Record Store Day, tomorrow, at 1,000 or so surviving (and many actually thriving) indie record/CD stores around the country.

At the first Record Store Day in April 2008, Metallica played at the Rasputin Music store in San Francisco. Bands are playing at a bunch of record stores around the country Saturday, including Criminal Records in Atlanta.

Many artists (Radiohead, My Morning Jacket, Sonic Young, Dylan, Springsteen among them) are putting out special CDs and/or DVDs for this record-store day. (By the way, look up to the right at Leyland's mug --- would you guess the man sings in front of people, in public, without much prompting? He does. Look at this. You have to get past the Pepto commercial first, but it's worth it.)

Anyone from Pittsburgh know if there's an indie record store downtown? I haven't seen one, but will check. I'd like to get to one after the day game, but not if it involves schlepping in a cab to the other side of town.

"PUT YOU DOWN" by Alejandro Escovedo

Some people say the world's a strange and evil place

And all the shadows fall across your face

Because the world's a strange and evil place

Then others say because the sun shines every day

That we should live life come what may

Because the sun shines every day

But I gotta say

That I just can't put you down

And all the girls think I'm insane

You know I can't put you down

And my dad can't recall my name

But I just can't put you down

And my friends won't call back at all

But I just can't put you down

Some people say

If you feed a dog a bloody bone

He's your best friend for your life

If you feed a dog a bloody bone

Patch up your dreams

With all the gold that falls at your feet

Stick your finger in a dike

All the gold falls at your feet

And I want to say

You know I just can't put you down

And all the women think that I'm insane

You know I just can't put you down

And my Mom won't call back at all

You know I just can't put you down

I rub my wounds with alcohol

You know I just can't put you down

I just can't put you down

There ain't a pill that'll cure that pain

But I just can't put you down

Some people say

That money can buy anything

All the drugs to cure the pain

Money can buy anything

Then some people want

All the sin and pleasure in this world

They don't care about the price

They pay for all the sin and pleasure in this world

But I've gotta say

You know I just can't put you down

I don't care how far I fall

You know I just can't put you down

And I don't care if they call back at all

I just can't put you down

All the women can forget my name

You know I just can't put you down

You know I just can't put you down

You know I just can't put you down

You know I just can't put you down

http://blogs.ajc.com/atlanta-Braves-blog/2009/04/17/Braves-sweep-swept-on-to-steel-