NL East champion Atlanta Braves will face the Reds
It will be the Atlanta Braves’ unstoppable force vs. the Reds immovable object.
It’s the team nobody really wants to face, but short of tanking a couple of additional games, there wasn’t much the Atlanta Braves could do about it.
The Cincinnati Reds own the third-best team ERA in the National League and they will have the task of trying to silence- what’s been an Atlanta Braves team with the best offensive OPS in their franchise’s last 146 years.
Fred Owens discussed this very matchup just a few days ago, but while he correctly figured out the ultimate matchup, he couldn’t have imagined just how close things turned out on Sunday afternoon.
Ultimately, three teams effectively tied at 2 games above .500: St. Louis (30-28), Miami (31-29), and the Reds (also at 31-29).
Miami was excluded from initial tie-breaker consideration as the team finishing 2nd in the NL East.
The Cardinals are effectively the recipients of the “dumb luck” award today since their winning percentage (.517241) for their fifty-eight games exceeded the mark earned by the Reds (.516666).
That placed St. Louis second in the NL Central and taking the 5th overall seed by virtue of that same percentage margin over 6th seed Miami.
All of that left Cincy holding the #7 seed. Their participation in the tournament was clinched by an extra-inning victory over Minnesota, though had the Cardinals fallen to Milwaukee, the Reds would have finished second in the Central.
Oddly enough, both Milwaukee and St. Louis got their golden tickets despite playing one another, though the Brew Crew did so via the ultimate back door: both the Giants and Phillies had to lose… and they did.
The Bracket
So here’s how all of that chaos was resolved:
- #1 DODGERS vs. BREWERS
- #2 BRAVES vs. REDS
- #3 CUBS vs. MARLINS
- #4 PADRES vs. CARDINALS
The higher-seeded team will host all games of the best-of-3 series, and the National League will begin play on Wednesday with the first round proceeding through Friday — game times to be announced soon.
For the record, here are the AL matchups:
- #1 RAYS vs. BLUE JAYS
- #2 A’s vs. WHITE SOX
- #3 TWINS vs. ASTROS
- #4 INDIANS vs. YANKEES
Expected pitching matchups for the Braves’ series:
- Max Fried vs. Trevor Bauer
- Ian Anderson vs. Sonny Gray
- Kyle Wright vs. Luis Castillo (if necessary)
This is also a matchup of the #1 run-scoring offense in the majors (Atlanta ) against the #26 scoring team in the Reds (they are also dead last in number of hits)… and Cincy will be out of their home band-box, of course.
So expect some low-scoring games… but hopefully with the Atlanta Braves getting a few more along the way.