Braves return to field, but much still unknown about 2020 season

Officially, it was meaningless. Unofficially, it meant everything if you’re a baseball fan. Unless, that is, you happen to root for the Miami Marlins.

With one swing, Matt Adams reminded Atlanta Braves fans -- and baseball fans in general -- what they have been missing for the past three-plus months. (My predictive text feature wanted to insert years instead of months, and it feels like it has been that long.)

Adams, who made a splashy debut in his first go-round with the Braves, crushed a home run in the bottom of the ninth inning in his first game back with Atlanta, giving the home team a 10-9 victory over the Marlins in an exhibition game that was improbable, yet oh so familiar.

It counted for nothing other than a much-needed feel-good moment for Braves fans.

Baseball is back, and so are the never-say-die Braves. They spotted the Marlins an 8-0 lead, scored eight runs in the eighth to take a 9-8 lead, then promptly blew the lead -- of course -- to set up Adams’ walk-off in the bottom of the night.

We’ve seen this script play out many times over the past two years. But at least this time, it wasn’t a replay from 2019. It was live. So what if it didn’t count.

One day after the New York Yankees and Washington Nationals played the first official game of the 2020 season -- albeit shortened to six innings due to rain -- the Braves opened their season for real Friday in New York against the Mets. You don’t have to be a sports fan to appreciate any little step toward returning to something close to normal.

The seats are empty, except for the few locations where cardboard cutoffs of fans take the place of real people. The crowd noise is piped in. No word yet whether there will be virtual boos for Bryce Harper when the Philadelphia Phillies visit SunT … er, Truist Park.

After considerable doubt whether this 2020 season would ever take place -- as much due to the owners’ and players’ tone-deaf greed as to the pandemic itself -- baseball is back. Ordinarily, late July/early August would be the beginning of baseball’s dog days. Exciting if you happen to be one of the lucky few in a pennant race, mundane and tedious if your team is hopelessly buried in the standings.

With the season reduced to a 60-game sprint and the playoffs increased to 16 teams -- top two from each division -- almost every team has at least a puncher’s chance of reaching the postseason. With no team immune to COVID-19, it’s impossible to accurately predict what will happen.

We were reminded of that Thursday when the Nationals announced that Juan Soto -- their version of Ronald Acuna Jr. -- tested positive for COVID-19. While Soto was asymptomatic, Atlanta’s Freddie Freeman suffered miserably when he contracted the disease. Several players have already opted out of the 2020 season, and you can be assured many others -- including some big names -- will follow in the coming weeks. And baseball is such a mentally taxing game. It’s hard to know who will be affected mentally once they start traveling and are sequestered in their hotels.

That may be the biggest X-factor of this season.

So, while it’s customary to make preseason predictions, we’ll forgo the deep dive and hit the highlights. The bullpen is improved, and it will need to be, because the starting rotation is suspect. There’s Mike Soroka and Max Fried, then a bunch of question marks. Mike Foltynewicz is on the verge of being banished to the bullpen or traded. Sean Newcomb has great stuff but may be better suited for relief. There’s a multitude of young arms who don’t appear to be ready and whose development may be impeded by the absence of a minor league season.

Julio Teheran, Mr. Reliable for the past few seasons, is gone. Cole Hamels won’t be available until September at the earliest and probably not at all. So they brought back another familiar face, Jhoulys Chacin, who should be at least serviceable.

The possibilities are almost limitless. They could win it all or they could have a losing season. At this point, that matters less than remembering the bigger picture. They’re playing again.