The Braves’ collapse Wednesday against the Colorado Rockies could be called the epitome of what it is to be a Braves fan this season.

It was 10-2 in the fifth. The game’s over, right? Even the most diehard pessimistic starts to have subtle hopes about a game that seems to well in hand. Cautious hopes start to rise that maybe the Braves will hang on.

Sort of like the pennant race in the NL East before the all-star break.

With a nice lead in the division before the break, this faithful fan began to let hopes slide into his programmed pessimism.

Even I started to think that ‘maybe this year…’

But now, that lead that is slowly shrinking and the cautious hopes that began to appear before the all-star break are starting to give way to familiar doubt.

Like during the fifth inning Wednesday.

With the score 10-2, Jair Jurrjens walked a batter. That’s all, just a walk, but the comeback was on.

I’m not going to relate what transpired, the full story is here, but one runner became many and the runs began to pile up.

The momentum, to those who put stock in such things, became almost palpable even on television. Even before the comeback was complete, it seemed apparent that it was more when it would happen than if.

And that’s how I feel about the NL East pennant race.

The Braves lost Wednesday, so if the parallel follows, they will lose the pennant race.

But I believe I still have enough hope in my ability to be wrong to watch the rest of the season; after all, there’s always the Wild Card.