That’s A Wrap
The Atlanta Braves’ season ended on an extremely high note. The Atlanta Braves’ postseason however, ended on an exact opposite note.
The one-sentence version of this article reads as such: the Braves were dominated by the Phillies.
While the long-form version offers an explanation, it never strays from the aforementioned synopsis.
The largest contributing factor to the Braves downfall - in my opinion - is the five-day break the Braves were awarded. In those five days, all momentum built was lost. In those five days, all timing at the plate was lost. In those five days, the starting pitchers lost all rhythm their bodies had gained from the regular season.
While all that was happening, the Phillies were staying locked in & gaining momentum. I said last week that Philly was the biggest threat to Atlanta due to the power in their lineup & their rotation’s ability to shut any lineup down on any given day. Add all that together AND THEN add a crowd who’s waited for a home playoff game for over a decade.
You have yourself the baseball version of the scene in “We Were Soldiers” where Mel Gibson envisions the French on patrol in Vietnam.
In a postseason series, the better team doesn’t always win. In those instances, the lucky team wins. In this series, the better team & luckier team won. Every lucky break went Philly’s way. That’s not me making an excuse. Philly needed no luck to beat Atlanta, those lucky breaks just turned those wins into beatings.
This season had a lot of positives. We extended basically our entire team for the rest of their natural born lives. We won our fifth consecutive National League East title. We continued to torture the Mets. But ultimately, every year that doesn’t end with a World Series Title is a failure. That’s exactly what this 101-win team losing in the Division Series to an 87-win team is.
A failure.
Now we move into free agency…