Braves respond to Alex Anthopoulos message the only way they know how

Alex Anthopoulos did something he rarely ever does. He spoke to the media during the regular season. Anthopoulos speaking publicly can only mean one thing. The Atlanta Braves are not playing up to par.

"I don't normally do scrums during the season, because we've done well," he told reporters Wednesday. "If I'm doing them, that means we're not playing well."

The Braves had been playing worse than they had in years. In fact, losing soon after Anthopoulos spoke on Wednesday gave them five losses in a row. That was their first five-game losing streak since 2017. Yes, they were still over .500, but that hardly meant anything since the Braves were 10 games over .500 at the end of April. They had been one of the worst teams in the majors since May 1, and their offense had been non-existent.

The Braves were in desperate need of a win on Thursday to avoid a sweep against the Baltimore Orioles and to snap the five-game skid. Thankfully, Reynaldo Lopez and the offense showed up.

Braves respond to Alex Anthopoulos' message with a convincing win

Anthopoulos addressed the media hoping his team would play better while acknowledging that if they didn't, trades might have to be made. The Braves did not look good in the loss they had immediately following Anthopoulos' presser, but in their second game since, they impressed.

Ozzie Albies had four hits including a pair of doubles, breaking out of a prolonged slump. Michael Harris II scored two runs out of the leadoff spot. Marcell Ozuna stayed red-hot with a pair of hits and RBI. Reynaldo Lopez twirled yet another gem. Most importantly, the Braves beat one of the best teams in baseball, the Orioles, 6-3.

Winning a game and scoring six runs against an elite team had become the norm for Atlanta over the years, but that kind of offense output and end result had eluded them over the last month and a half. They had scored six runs or more just twice in their last 15 games before scoring six on Thursday.

The Braves have had these one-off good performances on occasion during this bad stretch, but haven't strung strong games together, particularly on the offensive side. Hopefully, Anthopoulos' media scrum can be a turning point for Braves fans to look back on positively.