ATLANTA — The 2020s are starting to feel like the 1990s for the Atlanta Braves.
Another dazzling regular season. Another flop in the postseason.
After tying a Major League Baseball record with 307 home runs during the regular season, the slugging Braves went down meekly to the rival Philadelphia Phillies in a National League Division Series for the second year in a row.
Atlanta’s season once again ended at Philadelphia’s Citizens Bank Park, where the Phillies wrapped up the best-of-five NLDS with a 3-1 victory in Game 4 on Thursday night. As the fourth-seeded Phillies move on to an all-wild card NL Championship Series against the sixth-seeded Arizona Diamondbacks — that best-of-seven matchup starts Monday in Philadelphia — the Braves are left to sit at home for the rest of October and try to figure out how it all went wrong.
Other than a stunning comeback in Game 2, when the host Braves overcame a four-run deficit with a pair of two-run homers and a remarkable game-ending double play for a 5-4 victory, the Phillies totally dominated this NLDS, just as they did last fall.
They handed the Braves their first shutout all season at Truist Park, 3-0 in the series opener last Saturday. They blasted six homers in a 10-2 rout in Game 3 on Wednesday in Philadelphia. And they ended Atlanta’s season far sooner than anyone expected with three more homers in Thursday’s clincher.
After six months of dazzling play and an MLB-leading 104 wins, it was all over in the space of six days as the Braves and two other division champions, the 100-win Los Angeles Dodgers of the NL West and the Baltimore Orioles — who had the best record in the American League and won the highly competitive AL East — were wiped out early. The AL Championship series, which starts Sunday, will be a Lone Star State affair as the second-seeded Houston Astros take on the fifth-seeded Texas Rangers.
Atlanta manager Brian Snitker tried to keep things in perspective late Thursday night as the Braves and their fans dealt with that same stunning feeling created by an early exit.
“A phenomenal year for our club,” manager Brian Snitker said. “It didn’t end the way we wanted it to, but it doesn’t always do that in this game.”
In the 1990s, the Braves began a record-setting run of 14 straight division titles that included only one World Series title. This year marked their sixth straight NL East title, but their 2021 World Series championship, a six-game success against the Astros, is the only time during the run that Atlanta’s postseason hasn’t ended in disappointment.
AP photo by Chris Szagola / Philadelphia Phillies reliever Matt Strahm celebrates after closing out the team’s 3-1 home win against the Atlanta Braves in Game 4 of an NL Division Series on Thursday night. The victory also wrapped up the best-of-five series as Philadelphia eliminated Atlanta in the same round of the postseason for the second year in a row.TWICE BITTEN
This year and last have been especially painful for the Braves.
A season ago, they chased down the New York Mets to take the NL East with 101 wins and the head-to-head tiebreaker, earning a first-round bye only to be knocked off in an NLDS by a Philadelphia team that finished 14 games behind them in the division and barely squeaked into the playoffs.
Now they’ve been dealt another devastating blowout by the Phillies, who again finished 14 games behind Atlanta during the increasingly meaningless regular season.
The culprit this time was a stunner: an offense that produced more runs than any other team suddenly went cold at the most important time of the year. Take out Atlanta third baseman Austin Riley, who hit .353 (6-for-17) with two homers and was the hero of the Game 2 victory, and the remaining Braves batted .161 (18-for-112) with one homer and only one other extra-base hit over four games.
Among those who suddenly went cold was NL MVP favorite Ronald Acuña Jr., held to a pair of hits after the star right fielder became the first player in MLB to post 40 homers and 70 stolen bases in a season.
In an attempt to stay sharp with five days off between the end of the regular season and the start of the NLDS, the Braves had played three intrasquad games at Truist Park, even welcoming fans into the venue to provide some atmosphere. Meanwhile, the Phillies played two actual postseason games in that span, sweeping the fifth-seeded Miami Marlins in a best-of-three wild-card matchup.
Snitker was at a loss to explain the sudden power outage.
“That’s a good question,” the manager said. “I mean, we thought we did everything possible during the delay, recreated things the best we could. We can do everything right and all that, and you start a series, and you know what, your offense doesn’t get traction. It could happen anytime.”
AP file photo by Hakim Wright Sr. / In the aftermath of Thursday night’s season-ending loss to the Philadelphia Phillies in an NL Division Series, Atlanta Braves manager Brian Snitker had no easy answers for why his team’s powerful lineup went so cold in the postseason.MOUND OF TROUBLE
The NLDS also exposed a problem the Braves navigated successfully during the regular season: a lack of starting pitching.
Ace left-hander Max Fried missed a large chunk of the season, and Kyle Wright — a 21-game winner in 2022 — barely pitched at all. Snitker covered the losses by using 16 starting pitchers, led by hard-throwing right-hander Spencer Strider, the only 20-game winner in the majors this season.
And yet Strider was beaten twice in the NLDS, Fried struggled in his lone start, and All-Star righty Bryce Elder was hammered in Game 3 to finish off his troubling second-half slide.
Just before the playoffs began, the Braves learned that Wright would need a major shoulder procedure and will miss the entire 2024 season. On Friday afternoon, the Braves said Wright had surgery to repair a torn capsule in his right shoulder Wednesday, with the operation done by Dr. Keith Meister in Arlington, Texas.
In addition, the future of 14-game winner Charlie Morton is uncertain after a sprained finger kept him from pitching in the postseason. Morton, who turns 40 next month, has a $20 million team option for next season. The Braves haven’t said if they’ll exercise the option, and Morton hasn’t said if he plans to pitch another year.
Even if Morton returns, the Braves are likely to seek starting pitching help during the offseason — perhaps dangling infield prospect Vaughn Grissom, who doesn’t appear to have much of a future in Atlanta, as trade bait.
The Braves also have plenty of question marks in the bullpen beyond closer Raisel Iglesias, who has two more years on his contract after recording 33 saves, and set-up man A.J. Minter, who isn’t eligible for free agency until 2025.
As for the rest of the roster, the Braves have locked up nearly all their top players to long-term deals and are likely to return with essentially the same lineup.
Acuña’s historic season (.337 average with 41 homers, 106 RBIs, 73 stolen bases and 149 runs) was augmented by first baseman Matt Olson setting franchise records for homers (54) and RBIs (139) as he led the major in both categories this year. Designated hitter Marcell Ozuna bounced back from a dismal start to slug 40 homers with 100 RBIs, second baseman Ozzie Albies had 33 homers and 109 RBIs, and Riley slugged 37 homers with 97 RBIs while playing stellar defense.
Unfortunately for the Braves, those impressive numbers didn’t add up to much in the playoffs.
Sure sounds familiar.