Atlanta Braves NLDS Game 1: Time to kick the door down
Here we give you all the information you need for game one of the NLDS between the Atlanta Braves and St. Louis Cardinals.
On Thursday the Atlanta Braves and St. Louis Cardinals will get the real MLB playoffs started — I don’t count Wild Card games — in game one of the NLDS.
As we’ve already covered, there is a good deal of history between the Braves and Cardinals in the postseason, and most of it is not good for Atlanta.
But this is a new season, a different team, and one that is hungry to get that monkey off their back having not advanced in the MLB playoffs since 2001.
Obviously expectations are high for the Atlanta Braves entering the playoffs as they’ve been considered the second-best team in the NL for a while now behind the Los Angeles Dodgers.
As we’ve written about, and fans have commented, this season would seem like a bit of a failure if the Atlanta Braves don’t at least advance to the NLCS.
As Brian Snitker said, last year we just knocked on the door, this year we expect them to kick it down and make some noise.
But they’ll have a very difficult task in the NLDS taking on the St. Louis Cardinals. A team that really struggled in the first half, but thanks to its starting pitching — and some underperformances in their division — they soared in the second half.
They finished the regular season fifth in all of baseball in team ERA at 3.80, and it was a very even performance as their starters and relievers both ranked 5th in ERA. They also held opponents to a batting average of .238.
Their pitching staff relied more on a much-improved defense from 2018 as they were just 17th in baseball with a K/9 of 8.72.
Offensively, the Cardinals were just 19th in baseball in runs scored, and they were 23rd in average.
And in a season when every team is putting up stupid home run numbers, the Cardinals were 24th in baseball in that regard.
On paper, the Cardinals have a slight advantage in the pitching department, while the Braves have a very big advantage offensively. But we all know games aren’t played on paper or the Nats would have won the World Series every year.