Bryce Elder and Grant Holmes — do you think they might have heard all the negative noise after the Braves failed to add starting pitching at the trade deadline?

They sure pitched like it over the last two nights. Holmes didn’t give up a run over six innings on Tuesday, with Elder looking even better, allowing just one hit over seven innings, leading to back-to-back wins and extending the club’s winning streak to seven games.

Wednesday wasn’t the loudest evening for Atlanta’s offense, but four runs was more than enough, highlighted by two more hits from Austin Riley, who is starting to look like the guy who was a perennial MVP candidate a couple of years back. Since the All-Star break, he’s hitting over .300 with 13 RBIs and an .898 OPS in 18 games.

The win pushes the Braves 8.5 games ahead of the Phillies for first place in the NL East, with Philadelphia falling in extras to the Nationals last night. But perhaps even more importantly, after another Dodgers loss, the Braves now own the second-best record in baseball, trailing only the Milwaukee Brewers.

If the season ended today, that would mean a first-round bye — and a chance to skip the coin flip that is a three-game Wild Card series entirely.

That matters more for this team than most. The Braves’ biggest weakness is a rotation that lacks a true second option behind Chris Sale, and nothing exposes that faster than a short series where you need three quality starts in three days. A bye buys them time. It buys them a reset. Most importantly, it lets Walt Weiss line up Sale for Game 1 of the NLDS with everybody in the bullpen fully rested behind him.

Seven straight wins, a division lead that’s growing by the day, and now a legitimate shot at a bye that would hide the roster’s biggest flaw — at least for part of the postseason. For a fan base that spent the past few days furious about the trade deadline, this is about as good a response as anyone could have asked for.

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(Photo by Jeff Robinson/Icon Sportswire)