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Atlanta Braves: 3 takeaways from a bad Game 1 against the Cardinals

By Alan Carpenter

ATLANTA, GEORGIA - OCTOBER 03: A general view during the seventh inning in game one of the National League Division Series between the Atlanta Braves and the St. Louis Cardinals at SunTrust Park on October 03, 2019 in Atlanta, Georgia. (Photo by Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images)
ATLANTA, GEORGIA - OCTOBER 03: A general view during the seventh inning in game one of the National League Division Series between the Atlanta Braves and the St. Louis Cardinals at SunTrust Park on October 03, 2019 in Atlanta, Georgia. (Photo by Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images) /
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ATLANTA, GEORGIA – OCTOBER 03: Mark Melancon #36 of the Atlanta Braves delivers the pitch against the St. Louis Cardinals during the eighth inning in game one of the National League Division Series at SunTrust Park on October 03, 2019 in Atlanta, Georgia. (Photo by Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images)
ATLANTA, GEORGIA – OCTOBER 03: Mark Melancon #36 of the Atlanta Braves delivers the pitch against the St. Louis Cardinals during the eighth inning in game one of the National League Division Series at SunTrust Park on October 03, 2019 in Atlanta, Georgia. (Photo by Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images) /

3.  Bullpens are vulnerable

Neither team’s relievers were exactly performing well on Thursday – while the Cards’ extra arms did out-perform those of the Braves, Atlanta certainly got to Tyler Webb and closer Carlos Martinez.

Martinez, with 29 pitches thrown, may not even be available on Friday with the short turn-around  (4:37PM start time).

On the other hand, Mark Melancon likely won’t be available, and Chris Martin simply won’t be back:

So what do you do on Friday for pitching?  Here’s what has to happen on that side of the game for the Braves to stay in this series:

  • Mike Foltynewicz must pitch the game of his life… 6 innings absolute minimum; 7 better.
  • The Braves need to replace Chris Martin with… Julio Teheran?  Jerry Blevins?  Anthony Swarzak?  Which one do you trust to save the season – which is essentially the task if one of them has to pitch.
  • Others available:  O’Day, Greene, Newcomb, Tomlin.
  • Max Fried might even have to be called into service again… he did well in a 1-2-3 7th inning.  That might exclude him from duty for Game 4, but if he’s withheld, there may not be a Game 4 to worry about.

UPDATE:  IT’S TEHERAN – and FRIED will be the emergency guy:

The one thing that the Braves’ offense needs to tell themselves – a lot – is that they can hit the St. Louis relief corps.  Maybe not all of them, but certainly some of them.

The starting pitchers on Thursday gave up a combined 2 runs.  All of the rest (11 more runs) came at the hands of the relief pitchers.

The trick will be getting Flaherty out of the game.  We’ll talk about that a bit later.

It’s clearly not a good scenario… but that’s exactly why we noted that Game 1 was so crucial.

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