Dansby Swanson burns sage before Braves game, has himself a night

Yesterday, the Atlanta Braves found themselves somewhere most baseball teams will inevitably find themselves over 162 games — in a funk. They had lost two straight to the Arizona Diamondbacks and hadn’t scored a run since Friday. They needed something, anything, to get rid of the negative energies and cleanse the space.

That’s why Braves shortstop Dansby Swanson burned sage all around Truist Field before the ballgame.

Baseball players, fans, and managers are known to have superstitions. But I’m not sure how many times I’ve seen a sage burning at a ballpark.

But whatever Swanson did… it worked. He had two hits including this homer in the bottom of the third.

Atlanta wound up scoring more runs, which is always the biggest “key to the game,” beating the Cubs 8-7. After the victory, the 6-year MLB vet spoke about his pregame routine for the day.

“All year, I’ve been like if it gets to a point, I’m bringing sage in here — and I think yesterday was finally to that point,” Swanson said. “I pretty much walked every bit of area you can find in this place, I went into. It was fun.”

So that means the funk is over? Maybe? Probably? Who knows. But Swanson isn’t letting his guard down yet. And it sure sounds like he might start channeling his own inner-Wade Boggs.

“I might have to bring some tomorrow, too.”