Atlanta Braves news and links: The conga line continues on

BRAVES NEWS

Braves lose 15-1 to Washington on their way to their ninth straight loss

This classic Looney Tunes moment will do a better job of recapping last night's game than any words will.

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The Braves have become baseball's worst team

The record may not indicate it -- yet -- but it's pretty clear that our Braves have hit the bottom of baseball's ladder after this awful month-and-a-half run of terrible play. Just remember that things get darkest before dawn, so there's nowhere to go but up, right? Still, here are the gory statistics of what's been an extremely rough season for our Braves so far:

So here we stand on September 4, and the Braves are only a game ahead of the Phillies for the worst record in baseball. But they’re charging hard:

• They currently have the worst run differential in baseball at -164;
• Since the All-Star break they are tied with the Tigers for the most runs allowed out of any team in baseball;
• For the entire season they have scored fewer runs than any team in baseball (and no one has played more games than they have);
• They have 83 home runs, which is 16 fewer than the next worst team and 102 fewer than the Blue Jays, who lead MLB in homers;
• They have the lowest OPS in all of baseball;

Fredi is starting to show frustration

Even though the future is still pretty bright for the Braves, the present-day situation would weigh heavily on anybody's shoulders. It seems to be pressing on the manager's shoulders now, as Fredi Gonzalez is starting to express his frustration with the pitching staff after they got shelled last night in DC.

"They'll figure it out sooner or later, but the stuff we've been seeing is really unacceptable," Gonzalez said. "These guys are professionals. They're Major Leaguers. Some of these guys have a lot of years playing in the Minor Leagues. For them to get hit around like that is unacceptable."

The Braves have lost 16 of their past 17 games, and they have now surrendered at least 15 earned runs in three of their past seven games. To put this alarming stat in perspective, they had allowed 15 earned runs in just 10 of the 3,948 games played from the start of the 1991 season through the beginning of this troubling stretch.

It's getting rough, folks. There's only a few weeks left of this, though. We'll make it through this together.

MLB NEWS

Carlos Gonzalez is currently on fire for the Rockies

The Rockies might be completely out of the postseason race, but that hasn't stopped Carlos Gonzalez from catching fire. The face of the Rockies has hit four homers in two days, and has 35 on the year. The man is trying to end 2015 on a good note, and it appears that he's trying to transform into the human torch in order to do so.

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Can the Pirates catch the Cardinals for the NL Central title?

While the Cardinals news that we were focused on concerned Jason Heyward and his status as a free agent, their fans are focused on whether or not the Pirates can catch them in the NL Central. While they did a good job of breaking down the possible scenarios where Pittsburgh can catch their Cardinals, the point is that it's going to take a massive effort on Pittsburgh's part and a gigantic collapse on St. Louis' part for this to happen.