Braves Are 1 Win Away from Returning to World Series

With everything the Atlanta Braves have been through in this crazy 2020 season, it’s hard to believe they are just one win away from reaching the World Series.

There is still plenty of work left to do for the Atlanta Braves, but they essentially have three games to win one against the Los Angeles Dodgers.

However, the Dodgers were the best team in baseball all year – and the overwhelming favorites in this series – for a reason. They’re a very good team that is more than capable of winning three games in a row.

In fact, Game 4 almost felt like a must-win for the Braves even though they were up 2-1 in the series.

With Clayton Kershaw on the mound and Dustin May and Walker Buehler looming, Atlanta needed to take Game 4 to gain back control of this series.

And they did just that thanks to a brilliant effort on the mound by Bryse Wilson and a fantastic night at the plate by Marcell Ozuna.

Now they are just one win away from getting back to the World Series for the first time since 1999.

In all honesty, once Mike Soroka went down for the year I gave up on the hope of this team winning a World Series. And even now, it’s hard not to get caught up thinking about how much better this team would be with him in the starting rotation.

But even despite that, this team has remained confident and put themselves in a great position to do big things.

No matter what happens the rest of the way, I couldn’t be prouder of this team.

How do Braves finish this off?

But let’s talk for a second about how the Braves try to get that last win. Specifically, what are they going to do on the mound in Game 5?

As of me writing this early Friday morning the Braves still haven’t announced a starter for Game 5. And I honestly have no clue what manager Brian Snitker will do.

He did say that the only pitchers not available in Game 5 would be Ynoa and Dayton. And Kyle Wright would be available after throwing just 28 pitches in Game 3.

If it were me, I’d start Tyler Matzek and see if he can give you 2 innings, but Snitker had to use him in Game 4.

That being the case, I’d start A.J. Minter and then either go to Kyle Wright starting in the second inning so he can ease into things or go to Jacob Webb for an inning and let Wright start the third.

And then I’d hope Wright can give you 3 or 4 innings and keeps us in the ball game.

At that point you let the score dictate how you manage the rest of the game.

If looks out of hand then you bring in Josh Tomlin. But if the Braves are within 3 runs then I’d use guys like Darren O’Day and Will Smith to try and keep us in the game.

For Games 6 and 7 and you know the Braves have Max Fried and Ian Anderson ready to go. But let’s hope it doesn’t get that far.

Let’s also hope that the offense stays hot and keeps putting up big numbers and we don’t really have to worry about who’s pitching. ONE. MORE. WIN.