If the Atlanta Braves make the playoffs this year, circle Sunday's 10-9 victory over the Miami Marlins as the moment all of baseball may have begun to believe in this team's potential.
This wasn't just any walk-off victory the Braves secured when Dansby Swanson drove a two-run, line-drive single to left field in the bottom of the ninth inning at SunTrust Park.
This was a win not only won from 6-0 and 8-2 holes but a 9-4 deficit entering the bottom of the ninth. This was magic, the kind that used to propel this franchise more times than anyone could count during that run of 14 straight division titles Atlanta won from 1991 to 2005.
Atlanta Braves' Dansby Swanson hits a two-run single in the ninth inning of a baseball game against the Miami Marlins, Sunday, May 20, 2018, in Atlanta. (AP Photo/Todd Kirkland)This was never giving up and never giving in and once more telling the baseball world that this shockingly hot start isn't certain to disappear in the summer heat and autumn breeze, no matter how young or inexperienced this roster.
Or, as Swanson - who struck out to lead off the ninth before getting a chance to redeem himself - told the Braves' television folks afterward: "We've just got to keep rolling. Just come out tomorrow and do what we do."
What they've done through 45 games, more than a quarter of the schedule, is go 28-17 for the National League's best record. But now they're on a dangerous six-game road trip to Philadelphia and Boston that starts tonight with Mike Foltynewicz taking the mound against the Phillies (26-18), who are second in the NL East.
But not only are the Braves first in that division, they have the third-best record in baseball behind the New York Yankees (30-13) and the Red Sox (32-15), as well as the third-most runs scored behind those two - and all of this with a payroll that's more than $100 million short of the Red Sox and $70 million shy of the Yankees.
"I almost expect them to do it," Braves skipper Brian Snitker told the Associated Press after this latest comeback. "I mean, down six in the bottom of the fifth, I felt good."
Then again, why shouldn't he? A factoid for whatever foolish souls might still question the promotion of Snitker from Triple-A Gwinnett, first on an interim basis in May 2016 and then minus that label after the season: The Braves have 43 wins in their last at-bat since he joined the big club, most in the majors.
Beyond that, according to MLB.com, with the Braves scoring five of their six ninth-inning runs with two outs, they now have an MLB-best 119 two-out runs. No other team entered Sunday with more than 100 such runs.
It's certainly true that, at least in this case, the Marlins are awful bordering unwatchable, their famous front-office types - are you listening, Derek Jeter? - arrogant enough to believe we don't know a fire sale or a "process" or a tank job when we see it.
Still, they didn't play awful for much of Sunday. They chased the Braves' supposed ace, Julio Teheran, in the fifth, though he has a penchant for getting chased far more often at home than on the road. Miami's Miguel Rojas homered twice, and Lewis Brinson clubbed the first grand slam of his MLB career. If the Fish were ever going to take two of three from the Braves, this was it.
But then the wunderkind Ronald Acuna Jr. wound up driving home three runs in the game (including a sacrifice fly in the ninth), Swanson delivered his heroics and the Braves won one so wild and wonderful as to cause Freddie Freeman to proclaim to MLB. com: "There's really not many words I can put into that. That's probably one of the most exciting games I've ever played in, been a part of or watched."
But they are starting to pile up, these improbable wins, one on top of the other, as if this could keep happening until October.
Yes, it's only 45 games, and the Braves were around .500 at the All-Star break a year ago before imploding down the stretch. As long as Teheran remains an unpredictable starter, this team's playoff capabilities are uncertain.
But there's also something to be said for standing 11 games over .500 on the morning of May 21 when 25 of those 45 games have come on the road and you've won 17 of those 25. Let the Braves do no more than split these next six at Philly and Boston, and it's hard to see them not at least being in a strong, strong position to win a wild-card bid.
Sunday's game won, Swanson having survived the celebration with his teammates, the former Vanderbilt star said of his star turn, "This had nothing to do with me and everything to do with everybody else."
With an attitude like that producing wins such as Sunday's, it might be time for everybody else in baseball to take these Braves very seriously from this point forward.
Contact Mark Wiedmer at mwiedmer@timesfreepress.com.