Inside the closed-door meeting that got the Braves playing like champs again

“I was getting texts, ‘Are you going to blow these guys up?’ No. Players don’t respond to that.”

So Snitker consulted with his bench coach, Walt Weiss, and decided they needed to act now, calling a closed-door meeting in the visitor’s clubhouse when his players entered Phoenix’s Chase Field facing a potential sweep.

“Snit is not going to get in front of a club and rant and rave,” Weiss said. “It was a very simple message.”

The message: relax. The aftermath: 14 straight wins.

By the time the Braves finally lost for the first time this month Friday, they had cut the Mets’ NL East lead from 10½ games to 5½. They had gone from 4½ games out of a wild-card spot to owning the National League’s fourth-best record.

“One event doesn’t make 14 wins happen,” new Braves first baseman Matt Olson said. “But it was nice to hear Snit get up there and tell everyone to relax a little. We were not playing great baseball as far as the complete package, so it was just a ‘take a deep breath’ type of meeting.”