3 Braves to blame for Game 1 loss to Padres in NL Wild Card

The Atlanta Braves were dead in the water for Tuesday's Game 1 against the San Diego Padres. After grinding out a doubleheader on Monday to crack the postseason, Atlanta was forced to start rookie AJ Smith-Shawver on the national stage after Chris Sale was put on ice with back spasms.

There was just no way this ended well. The Braves looked like a team that played two games in the residual heat of summer, then flew across the country for a road game against the hottest team in baseball the very next day. Smith-Shawver made one MLB start this season and posted a 4.86 ERA in 20 Triple-A starts, so there wasn't much evidence to support him as a quality option. Atlanta just simply lacked obvious, viable alternatives.

Smith-Shawver made it through four outs before Brian Snitker pulled the plug. Atlanta's offense could never recover from the three earned runs he allowed, dropping the first game 4-0 on the road. Now it's win or go home for the next two days, all in a hostile Petco Park.

Atlanta has been ravaged by the injury bug all season. One almost couldn't blame this team for folding like a wet napkin under pressure. And yet, the Braves fandom still wants to see some fight from the pieces that remain. The Braves aren't trotting out a bunch of nobodies. There are still All-Stars in the lineup, including a presumptive top-three MVP finisher in Marcell Ozuna.

So, let's hand out blame cards for an ugly and uninspiring performance.

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Pierce Johnson was indirectly responsible for the Braves' Game 1 debacle

But Christopher, Pierce Johnson didn't pitch tonight?

That is true. Johnson was not called upon in Game 1, but we can still indirectly assign blame for the veteran reliever. It was Johnson who blew the lead in the first game of Atlanta's doubleheader on Monday, allowing the go-ahead two-run bomb to Francisco Lindor in the top of the ninth.

That secured the Mets victory — and allowed New York to take its foot off the gas pedal and rest key players for the second game of the doubleheader. You'll notice that New York looked perfectly spry in their Game 1 victory over Milwaukee, despit playing twice in summer heat and flying across country on short notice. The Braves went all-out for two games straight to survive and suffered the consequences with a Game 1 dud on the opposite coastline.

It happens. Johnson can't really take too much heat for giving up a homer to Lindor, everybody does it, but that feels like a real sliding doors moment. A win might've allowed Atlanta to save Grant Holmes and Reynaldo Lopez for Game 1, instead of burning through all its options in a regular season game and resorting to AJ Smith-Shawver.

Speaking of which...

AJ Smith-Shawver couldn't hang on the postseason stage

This was never going to end well for AJ Smith-Shawver. October baseball is unforgiving and the 21-year-old fireballer just did not have the requisite experience to thrive on this stage. Fernando Tatis Jr. rocketed a home run into the stratosphere in the second AB of the game. From there, it became clear that San Diego was in the driver's seat. Smith-Shawver was rattled from the jump.

He made it 1.1 innings, allowing four hits and striking out one. San Diego scored three of its four runs with Smith-Shawver on the mound. The Braves scored zero, so there wasn't much Smith-Shawver could've done. It doesn't help when all the oxygen is sucked out of a room in the opening minutes, though, and that Braves dugout was completely deflated within literal seconds of the game starting.

Smith-Shawver has a ton of talent and the Braves should not lose faith in his long-term outlook at 21 years old, but this was just about the worst possible outcome for Atlanta — forced into a wacky doubleheader the day before the playoffs, beset by key injuries, and left without enough healthy, rested pitching to avoid the break-in-case-of-emergency option in Game 1 of the playoffs.

Should the Braves have gone with Ian Anderson or Bryce Elder? Maybe, but hindsight is 20-20. We can speak frankly here. Bryce Elder ain't shutting down this Padres offense either.

Brian Snitker was dealt a bad hand and he let it define him

In all honestly, it's hard to blame Brian Snitker for rolling with AJ Smith-Shawver when the options were so limited. Ian Anderson has zero MLB experience this season. Bryce Elder was a complete disaster the last time he pitched in October. Smith-Shawver was used sparsely last season, but he has at least tasted MLB hitting. In his lone start this season, the 21-year-old went 4.1 scoreless innings. Small sample size, but in terms of better alternatives, good luck finding one.

That said, the coach has to bear the brunt of the blame with a rotation choice backfires. Smith-Shawver wasn't cut out for the moment. Aaron Bummer pitched 2.2 gorgeous innings in immediate relief. Perhaps Atlanta should've mounted a bullpen game, or just let Bummer "start." There were other ways to handle it.

The true culprit is the Atlanta offense — seven hits but zero runs will get you in the loss column every time — so we can shovel most of the actual blame to a hitter of your choice. But, the pitching put Atlanta in a hole from the onset tonight. That Tatis home run shook the foundations of Petco Park. From then on, the fans were rollicking and the Braves were battling more than a lights-out Michael King. They were battling a full-capacity stadium.

Snitker did not play his matchups right, and that Smith-Shawver decision will hang over the Braves and his postseason resume like a dark cloud, no matter how bad the other options were. Nobody will remember that Ian Anderson was under consideration to start. They'll remember that Smith-Shawver got the nod at 21 and was immediately raked into oblivion.