Atlanta Braves: The pitching has done its part, time for offense to break out
Going into the Atlanta Braves postseason matchup with the St. Louis Cardinals we thought the Atlanta offense could be the difference.
However, that hasn’t exactly been the case in the first three games for the Atlanta Braves.
The offense has come up with the big hits when they’ve needed them, but they’ve yet to have a complete game from beginning to end.
Even in game one when they scored six runs, it wasn’t an all-out onslaught from beginning-to-end.
For an offense that finished the regular season seventh in runs scored and eighth in slugging percentage, they’ve been quieted by Cardinals pitching for the most part.
In particular, the middle of the Atlanta Braves lineup has been kept in check.
Freddie Freeman, Josh Donaldson, Nick Markakis, and Matt Joyce are a combined 7-for-44 (.159) with just 1 walk and 10 strikeouts.
None of them have more than 2 hits in the series. And even more concerning is the fact that none of them are taking walks.
The kids in the lineup — Ozzie Albies, Ronald Acuna Jr., and Dansby Swanson — have been carrying the offense in the postsason so far.
They’re a combined 12-for-34 (.352), while Acuna and Albies have more combined walks (5) than the rest of the team in the playoffs.
Going to the pitching side of things for the moment, they’ve done their part in the postseason with a team ERA of 2.67 and a WHIP of 1.19.
Outside of that collapse in game one, this pitching staff has been lights out.
The starters, in particular, have been outstanding giving up 2 earned runs in 18.2 innings.
But if the Atlanta Braves are going to finish off the St. Louis Cardinals in this NLDS, the entire offense needs to show up.
I keep waiting for them to breakout and put up that crooked number on the board as they did in the ninth inning of game three.
But we need to see a complete game from them where they’re scoring multiple runs throughout the game.
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Hopefully that is what we see in game four with the Cardinals going to their fourth-best starter and likely a bunch of bullpen arms.