The Atlanta Braves picked a hell of a time to play their worst baseball of the season with the playoffs just a couple of weeks away.
On Monday, they lost their fourth-straight game, responding to a sweep at the hands of the Marlins by dropping a game 7-1 to the Phillies at home.
Teams lose all the time, but the way the Braves are losing right now is highly concerning, especially because a reliever like Michael Tonkin has repeatedly proven he can't be trusted in the postseason.
Tonkin came into Monday's game in the top of the fifth inning with Atlanta trailing 4-1. In the sixth, he gave up home runs to Nick Castellanos and Kyle Schwarber. The second of those was a moon shot of epic proportions.
That's got to be the final straw for Tonkin as a Braves pitcher in 2023.
Michael Tonkin shouldn't play for Braves again after miserable September
Going into the game against the Phillies, he'd been having a rough time of it. He'd given up six hits and four earned runs in his last 4.1 innings pitched. On Saturday against Miami, he gave up a grand slam to Jazz Chisholm to blow the game open from 7-5 to 11-5.
The Braves need reliability from their middle relief options and Tonkin has been the opposite of that this month. There's no way he should make the postseason roster.
The good news for Atlanta is their lead at the top of the division is so big they've got nothing to worry about on that front.
The bad news is they've allowed the Dodgers to close the gap at the top of the National League standings to just four games. The No. 1 seed in the NL could be up for grabs.
Either way, it looks like the Braves will have a bye to open October play but they need to shake off the cobwebs and get back to playing good baseball before their season is on the line in the playoffs.
