After the long and winding road of the regular season, the Atlanta Braves opened postseason play on Tuesday afternoon. The results were not as desired for the No. 2 seed in the National League, with the Braves falling at the hands of the Philadelphia Phillies and digging a 1-0 hole in the best-of-five NLDS matchup.
Following the conclusion of the game, Battery Power’s Brad Rowland and Eric Cole turned on the microphones for Episode 372, and topics include the following:
- Max Fried did not have his best stuff, and the Braves squandered the most favorable starting pitching matchup (on paper) of the first three games
- Missed opportunities were everywhere for Atlanta’s offense, including a pair of bases loaded chances that went empty in the first three innings
- The Braves got into Philadelphia’s bullpen early, but were not able to (fully) take advantage
- Brian Snitker made a very odd pinch-hitting decision in the fifth inning, going with Vaughn Grissom over Robbie Grossman against a left-handed pitcher in a high-leverage spot
- Atlanta’s bullpen did its job behind Fried, which is perhaps encouraging for Game 2 and beyond
- Matt Olson tried his best to kickstart the comeback with a three-run home run in the ninth
- There was one roster surprise on Tuesday morning, and it involved Tyler Matzek
- It’s going to be a series full of afternoon baseball
- Looking ahead to an urgent situation on Wednesday, with Kyle Wright taking on Zack Wheeler
- Much, much more
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