So many times on Wednesday afternoon, it felt like the Atlanta Braves were well on their way to a clinching win in Game 2 of their Wild Card series against the Philadelphia Phillies. And every single team, Atlanta decided they'd rather not take advantage.
Seven sterling innings from starter Tyler Mahle? Wasted. A whopping 11 base-runners against Phillies starter Cristopher Sanchez? Not interested. Even when Bryce Harper misplayed a routine fly ball to gift the Braves two go-ahead runs in the seventh inning, Atlanta's bullpen immediately coughed it up — and then gave up the Alec Bohm homer in the 10th that ultimately proved decisive.
Atlanta has one more chance to keep their season alive and reach the NLDS on Thursday. But if they don't — or even if they do move on to face the Dodgers with a depleted pitching staff — they'll look back on Game 2 as an infuriating missed opportunity, and several players bear most of the blame.
LHP Dylan Lee
It's hard to start anywhere else. The Braves had just taken what felt like a decisive lead in the bottom of the seventh, when Drake Baldwin's fly ball sailed over Bryce Harper's head and broke a 1-1 deadlock. And then, only half an inning later, Lee allowed back-to-back homers to Kyle Schwarber and Harper to tie the game again.
Lee was Atlanta's top lefty specialist all year, and the sole reason he was on this Wild Card roster was to deal with this two hitters specifically. And it wasn't even as though he made them work for it! He left a slider middle-middle to Schwarber, then left one on the lower inside corner to Harper — exactly where you don't want to go with a lefty power hitter. The Phillies handed the Braves Game 2 on a platter, and Lee knocked that platter out of their hands.
RHP Didier Fuentes
Of course, while Lee is the primary Brave to blame here, he's far from alone. Alec Bohm posted just a .643 OPS against right-handed pitching this year, struggling so much that many fans were calling on the Phillies to slide him into a platoon role. And yet, with the season on the line, Bohm took Fuentes deep to right field for what would be the game-winning homer.
Fuentes is just 21 years old, getting his first taste of playoff baseball. And to be sure, he's one of the big reasons why the Braves won the NL East in the first place, thriving in his shift to the bullpen. But that's simply an out that he has to get, and he didn't execute when the chips were down. Atlanta's relief corps loomed as a major advantage in this series, but it was anything but on Wednesday.
Manager Walt Weiss
Part of that falls on Weiss, though, who made several questionable decisions in Game 3. First and foremost: Why was Lee on the mound in that spot at all? He was sensational in the first half, but he showed signs of fatigue down the stretch, and he'd just thrown on Tuesday. Instead of turning to him against two great hitters for the second day in a row, why not call on Dylan Dodd, another lefty who was excellent during the regular season?
And while we're at it, why was Dom Smith — who had all of 13 plate appearances in September, and slashed .091/.231/.364 in them — called upon to pinch-hit with the game on the line in the bottom of the 10th? Sean Murphy had taken good at-bats all day and surely represented Atlanta's best chance regardless of any sort of platoon "advantage". This was not Weiss' best day, and it might cost the Braves dearly.
OF Michael Harris II
Really, you could indict the entire offense here, as they had Sanchez and Philly's bullpen on the ropes for much of Wednesday afternoon and yet ultimately managed just three runs in 10 innings. But Harris II had a particularly brutal game, highlighted by two rally-killing double plays — one of which came with one out and the bases loaded.
Braves fans know all too well how maddening a player Harris II can be. When he's right, he's electric; when he's not, his lack of plate discipline is truly brutal to watch. We got the latter version on Wednesday, and Atlanta is now facing elimination because of it.
Add us as a preferred source on Google