{"id":37697,"date":"2013-10-08T22:29:30","date_gmt":"2013-10-09T02:29:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/totfc.net\/?p=37697"},"modified":"2020-07-08T22:29:41","modified_gmt":"2020-07-09T02:29:41","slug":"the-2013-braves-ironic-conclusion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/totfc.net\/?p=37697","title":{"rendered":"The 2013 Braves\u2019 ironic conclusion"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Blah blah blah apathy, etc, etc. Yeah, all of my seven readers have read it before. But I\u2019ll be damned that seeing the Braves in the playoffs again after a few years has been some of the most tension and excitement-filled baseball I\u2019ve watched in quite some time, and I have to admit to feeling somewhat invigorated by it, in spite of the unfortunate way the season came to a close last night.<\/span><\/p>\n

Ultimately, I\u2019m not surprised that the Braves lost the series, because my educated guess was that they simply didn\u2019t have the pitching to hang with the Dodgers, or any other World Series contender, but it didn\u2019t meant that I wasn\u2019t going to root for them regardless. And it doesn\u2019t make that feeling of exhausted and draining defeat suck any less when it did happen, because in the end, that\u2019s not what I wanted from my team. I wanted them to win the whole fucking shebang, and not get bounced in the first round yet again.<\/span><\/p>\n

But it\u2019s how it all transpired that I felt like writing about, because it defied all logic and convention, and as far as making educated guesses go, was not how it was supposed to happen. And like all high-tension critical games go, it was of course, the emotional rollercoaster that makes victory sweeter for those on the winning side, and defeat that much more painful for those on the losing side.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Going into the playoffs, it was my guess that the Dodgers could probably win it in four games. In that regard, I was actually spot on; there\u2019s no consolation in being right here, because it came at the expense of my team, it just says I watch and analyze a whole lot of baseball and am not completely incompetent when it comes to making an educated guess. But the rationale behind it was that the Dodgers have a lot of talented starting pitching, and that the Braves\u2019 starting pitching is not capable of matching it. The Braves are also a team that strikes out a lot with the flipside being that they have a ton of power and hit a whole lot of home runs; but when a strikeout-prone team runs into a team with talented starting pitching, something\u2019s got to give.<\/span><\/p>\n

In the four game series, the Braves struck out 42 times; naturally the one game in the series they won was the one where they struck out just six times, but still, 15, 6, 9, 12 strikeouts in each of the games. Anything over 8-9 over a nine-inning game is not to be considered to be that good, it\u2019s even worse when it\u2019s one guy throwing 10+ in less than nine innings. Needless to say, the Dodgers\u2019 strong starting pitching capitalized on the propensity for Braves batters to strike out.<\/span><\/p>\n

The one shining strength the Braves had not only over the Dodgers, but probably compared to every single playoff contender, was strength in relief. The Atlanta bullpen was statistically stingy, staunch about giving up hits and walks, and anchored by the National League\u2019s best closer in Craig Kimbrel. The Braves\u2019 objective for every game was very simple: get a lead, do whatever it takes to get that lead into the hands of Kimbrel, profit.<\/span><\/p>\n

So it\u2019s kind of poetically perfect that it was the bullpen that ended up being the demise of the Braves last night.<\/span><\/p>\n

Last night\u2019s game was actually a thing of beauty when I look back at it. It\u2019s just the ending that I found to be unsatisfactory. If the Braves pulled off the victory, the emotional roller coaster would have continued to rise and rise until whatever the conclusion could have been on Wednesday night, but instead, with the defeat, the culmination of the peak was an unsatisfying drop that didn\u2019t provide enough momentum to carry us to the appropriate finish.<\/span><\/p>\n

But really, the game was supposed to be the ultimate trap game for the Dodgers that they had no right winning. The Dodgers took a gamble to putting the nail in the Braves\u2019 coffin, by sending out the best starting pitcher in the Major Leagues, Clayton Kershaw, on just three days rest (typical starters get five). The Braves countered, almost laughably, with Freddy Garcia, a maligned journeyman pitcher who really had no right starting in a playoff game in today\u2019s era; think Tony Danza\u2019s character in Angels in the Outfield<\/em> for an appropriate comparison.<\/span><\/p>\n

However that right there was the perfect recipe for a trap game \u2013 best pitcher in baseball versus a guy that was literally unemployed at the start of July.<\/span><\/p>\n

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And the story went on as it should have; Clayton Kershaw, whether it be the nerves of pitching in a potential series clincher, or the fact that he was pitching after inadequate rest, was somewhat mortal on this game. After striking out 12 in seven innings in the first game, he \u201conly\u201d struck out six in six innings last night. It\u2019s still very good in general standards, but for the best pitcher in baseball, it\u2019s definitely mortal. Especially since he gave up two runs to the Braves, who had no intention of bowing out without some sort of resistance. But the important thing was that the Braves weathered the storm of Kershaw, and by the time he left the game, the Braves were very much still alive, which is a complete opposite of how things went in the first game of the series.<\/span><\/p>\n

The bigger story was the storybook performance by Freddy Garcia. I felt like the only person on the planet who saw this script being written, and was the only person alive not surprised when Garcia turned the clock back in time about eight years and made one fucking hell of a start to keep the Braves\u2019 hopes alive.<\/span><\/p>\n

#Braves<\/a> Freddy Garcia: “I don’t panic. I just make pitch.”<\/span><\/p>\n

\u2014 David O’Brien (@ajcbraves) October 7, 2013<\/a><\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n