Three Cuts: Wood silences Pirates' bats; Braves halt 5-game slide

Here are three random, but detailed takes from the Braves' 2-1 victory over the Pirates on Sunday -- Atlanta's first and only win from a brief road swing through Washington and Pittsburgh:

Heading into the weekend, Wood had surrendered three or fewer earned runs in 12 of 14 starts -- an admirable tally for any pitcher in the major leagues.

And yet, the 24-year-old still managed to shave 27 points off his seasonal ERA on Sunday, stifling the Pirates for zero runs, zero walks and five scattered hits over 7 1/3 superb innings.

To say Wood had extra motivation for Sunday's dominance wouldn't be a hyperbolic statement.

Yes, Wood wanted to halt the Braves' five-game slide (a season-worst stretch), but he also wanted to atone for the June 7 outing against Pittsburgh, when the usually reserved southpaw got ejected after five innings, while absorbing his third home defeat of the season.

The only commonalities from the Pittsburgh starts? Wood didn't finish either game, but he left Sunday with greater peace of mind, allowing no more than four Pirates batters for Innings 1-6 ... and racking up eight strikeouts -- tying a seasonal best from April 29 (against the Nationals).

Looking ahead, Wood has a viable chance to double up his modest scoreless-innings streak. His weekend start comes against the anemic Phillies -- the worst scoring team in baseball.

As such, Wood blanked Philadelphia over five-plus innings on April 24.

The Braves didn't have a ton of scoring opportunities on Sunday, collecting just eight hits and posting a .200 batting average (1 for 5) with runners in scoring position.

The lone RISP hit came from Nick Markakis. In fifth inning, Atlanta led off with two easy outs from Wood (strikeout) and Peterson (flyout). But Cameron Maybin notched a single to left field and then advanced to second on a passed ball.

That set the stage for Markakis, who patiently stayed back on Jeff Locke's slow breaking ball and punched a seeing-eye RBI single past Pirates first baseman Sean Rodriguez, easily scoring Maybin for the game's opening run.

Two innings later, Peterson crunched a homer off Pirates reliever Deolis Guerra -- his third blast of the season -- boosting the Braves' lead to 2-0. It also marked the first time, citing 106 career MLB at-bats, that Peterson led off an inning with a home run.

All told, Peterson certainly helped Atlanta avoid the perils of a winless road trip. The victory also affected Pittsburgh in two unique ways (hat tip to the FOX Sports South announcers for the info):

**The Braves became the first National League East team to beat the Pirates in Pittsburgh (1-11 this season).

**Pittsburgh incurred its first daytime defeat of the year.

For the sake of argument, let's say the Braves (36-40) split the six-game home slate against the Nationals (1 -2) and Phillies (2-1). That would put Atlanta at 39-43, with only 41 remaining outings at Turner Field.

In the National League East, the Nationals (42-33 heading into Sunday, winners of eight straight) are on pace for 91 victories -- when rounding up. If that trend continues, starting next Monday (July 6), the Braves would need a 52-28 mark over their final 80 games ... just for the right to clinch a tie with Washington at season's end.

It's a remarkably similar uphill climb with the wild-card hunt, as well, where the Braves currently own the sixth spot in this two-team chase.

The Pirates (42-33), owners of WC #1, have the same record as the East-leading Nationals. They also have 44 remaining games at PNC Park (24-14 at home). Of equal relevance, of Pittsburgh's final 16 outings ... seven come against bottom-feeders like Colorado and Cincinnati.

The Giants (41-35), the current owners of WC #2, will undoubtedly push the West-leading Dodgers for the division title down the stretch.

That heat should maintain Los Angeles and San Francisco as candidates for the 90-win mark ... meaning that Atlanta would need at least 50 victories -- beginning July 6 -- to match or even overtake the West "loser" for a wild card spot.

San Francisco will be particularly hard to catch in September. Of the club's final 22 games -- all played within the state of California -- 16 occur at home.

Back to the Braves: The calendar may still read "June" ... but this is a huge week for a club that's in the proverbial no-man's land of playoff contention, in terms of being buyers or sellers for the postseason stretch run.

Just do the math. Atlanta needs to get hot very soon.

There's really no way around it.