ATLANTA – Atlanta Braves first baseman Freddie Freeman stood in his team’s SunTrust Park locker room for a final time this season Monday night, trying hard to accept that the Braves indeed had been ousted from the playoffs thanks to a 6-2 loss to the Los Angeles Dodgers.
“We didn’t win the World Series,” he said somewhat sourly. “It’s a lost season in my book.”
He then quickly added, as if he knew he needed to soften those words: “Overall, I thought winning the division set up a good start for what’s going to happen in the future.”
Mark WiedmerSunday night was Braves baseball at its best. A historic grand slam from the regal rookie Ronald Acuna Jr., who became the youngest player in history (20) to smash a postseason grand slam. The oft-injured closer Arodys Vizcaino striking out three straight in the ninth after he’d allowed two Dodgers to reach base to begin the inning. A record crowd in two-year-old SunTrust Park to watch it all unfold, complete with fireworks to light up the sky both before and after the victory.
The Braves’ Monday performance against the Dodgers?