Braves Talk: Braves start the new week in first place

The Braves do not have the best winning percentage in the National League East. That belongs to the Miami Marlins, who have played seven fewer games than the Braves. But Atlanta leads the division nonetheless by a half-game over the band-aid Marlins team.

ATLANTA (11-6) --
MIAMI (7-3) -0.5
NEW YORK (7-9) -3.5
PHILADELPHIA (4-6) -3.5
WASHINGTON (4-7) -4.5

The Marlins have lost two games in a row. The Braves will see them next weekend when they play three games in Miami. We'll see if the Marlins' magic with no-name players can continue against Atlanta.

The Mets have won two in a row, while the Phillies lost the double-header to the Braves Sunday and the Nationals have lost three games in a row.

Atlanta will close out its four-game set with Philadelphia tonight with the first pitch scheduled for 6:05 p.m. ET. Sean Newcomb (0-1, 6.57) will go for Atlanta against Phillies' ace Aaron Nola (0-1, 3.97).

Then the Braves move on to New York to face the Yankees. Touki Toussaint (0-0, 6.08) will pitch in game one for Atlanta. The Braves may ask Bryse Wilson to come up to pitch Wednesday's game, or it might be another bullpen game. Kyle Wright would be next up, but he would be pitching on only three-days rest if he were to pitch Wednesday. That's unlikely, so the Braves will likely pick someone else.

Can Freddie Freeman and Ronald Acuna keep up their hot hitting from Sunday? They combined for 11 hits in 16 at bats during the two games against the Phillies, with four home runs, eight runs batted in and seven runs scored.

Listen to The Bill Shanks Show weekdays at 3:00 p.m. ET on Middle Georgia’s ESPN. You can listen online at TheSuperStations.com. Follow Bill on Twitter at @billshanks and you can email him at thebillshanksshow@yahoo.com.