Atlanta Braves: breaking down the Phillies for the 2022 NLDS
A stunned Cardinals team wasn’t able to recover from their 9th-inning nightmare, so how will the Phillies fare against our Atlanta Braves?
The biggest question for the Atlanta Braves entering this week’s National League Divisional Series matchup against Philadelphia may simply be this: can they duplicate what Cardinals’ pitching did to the Philadelphia offense?
Let’s face it: the Philly offense really only scored twice in two games against St. Louis. One of those came on a rundown play in which the Cards basically chose the wrong runner to tag out.
The fact that an injured pitcher allowed the bulk of six runs in a single inning should not obscure the reality that Philly’s six total hits (or 9 if you count that fateful 9th inning) isn’t enough to win most games… much less an entire playoff series.
That’s the bottom line for Atlanta this week: controlling the Philadelphia offense. But wait… there’s more.
The Basics.. and Recent History
The series opens in Atlanta on Tuesday afternoon… early afternoon. Game 1 is at 1:07PM EDT and the second game comes in at 4:07PM.
Don’t worry about a “day games hex” being on the Braves — technically, they were 25-27 during day games this season.
Most of their supposed day-game issues came when they weren’t playing well early on… or were rolling with a “B+” lineup on a getaway-game. That won’t be the case this week, of course.
Meanwhile, the Phillies didn’t try to get clever and hold back their best starter(s) like the Mets did against San Diego: Zack Wheeler pitched game 1 and Aaron Nola got game 2.
By all (Philadelphian) accounts, that went well for them:
Aaron Nola just authored one of the best postseason starts by a Phillies pitcher since... well, yesterday.
— Alex Carr (@AlexCarrMLB) October 9, 2022
He saw Zack Wheeler's dominant 6.2 innings and matched it. What a phenomenal outing.
This is accurate: neither of their starters gave up a run in 13.0 innings. The Cards got a total of 6 hits and struck out 10 times, with 2 runners appearing due to walks.
But the Cards had no solution for Wheeler all year. In 2 prior appearances, he shut them down: 14 innings with no runs allowed, 9 total hits, 2 walks, and 10K.
Nola faced them only once: 5 runs allowed (a 3-run homer did most of that damage).
But that’s the basic. Let’s look at some further detail.