While the postseason fates of the Braves, Dodgers and Orioles have caused the baseball world to continually re-evaluate MLB’s playoff format, key members of the Atlanta organization are embracing the idea that the Phillies will beat them for the second straight year sent home to the NLDS for being “beefy”. because of the long break.
“The people who try to use the playoff format to make an excuse for results they don’t like are not facing the real problem,” said Cy Young candidate Spencer Strider, who played in Games 1 and hit 4 by the Phillies, told reporters.
“You are in control of your focus, your competitiveness, your energy. If five days means you can’t make the adjustment, you have no one to blame but yourself.”
“We need to change or improve the way we focus and prepare for the postseason.”
This time, the Braves changed their preparation. Instead of simply taking batting practice during the five-day wait during the wild card round, they played intrasquad games in front of fans. Pitchers went relatively deep in these games.
But it wasn’t enough. It wasn’t enough to face a team like the Phillies or play at Citizens Bank Park.
The Diamondbacks are reportedly already adding extra crowd noise during their practice in Arizona to replicate the South Philly atmosphere. Not an easy task.
“The last two years in the postseason, they’ve done everything right,” Michael Harris II told The Athletic. “They got their fans to put pressure on the other team early on so the fans could stick around. They put pressure on the other team and that helped throughout the entire nine innings.”
“It’s just like last year, it happened the same way.”
Ronald Acuña Jr., the likely NL MVP, and Matt Olson, the majors’ home runs and RBI leader, went a combined 6-for-30 with an extra-base hit in the NLDS. The Phillies’ best players performed. The Braves’ best players didn’t do that. Austin Riley contributed, and Harris made two spectacular catches to steal the Phillies in Games 2 and 4, but that was it. The Phillies pitching staff was completely out of action against the toughest lineup in baseball.
Aside from Riley, the Braves hit .161.
“Everyone stepped up,” Braves catcher Travis d’Arnaud told The Athletic. “Ranger (Suarez) had a great series, Zack (Wheeler) had a great game, (Aaron) Nola, their whole bullpen. Their pitching was incredible. I don’t know, it was her time. It was their time to beat us this year.
The strength of the Phillies’ pitching staff stood out in the NLDS. In addition to having three starters they trust this time of year in Wheeler, Nola and Suarez, they have four backups from each side that they feel they can call on late in games: the right-handers Craig Kimbrel, Seranthony Dominguez, Jeff Hoffman and Orion Kerkering Lefties Jose Alvarado, Matt Strahm, Gregory Soto and Cristopher Sanchez.
Everyone except Sanchez played key roles in the 3-1 series win over the Braves. In Game 4, manager Rob Thomson was as aggressive as he has been throughout the 2022 postseason, using all three of Dominguez, Alvarado and Kimbrel before the seventh inning was over. Hoffman’s only run-scoring appearances in the last two months came against the Braves, giving Thomson the advantage over Soto and Strahm in the ninth inning on Thursday night. Soto put runners on the corners, but Strahm recorded three outs on eight pitches, ending the series.
Strahm wasn’t the expected pick to close out the NLDS, but the Phillies have plenty of weapons on their pitching staff. Significantly more than the Braves. Atlanta only had two left-handed batters in the bullpen in the series with AJ Minter and Brad Hand. Hand struggled most of the year with an ERA near 6.00. Bryce Harper took him deep in Game 3.
Had Atlanta been better prepared for the Phillies with more left-handed hitters, there would be a higher chance that Bryce Elder would never have faced Harper in the series-changing third inning of Game 3, when the Phillies scored six runs. The Braves didn’t want to burn a left-handed hitter so early. Maybe they should look at Thomson’s aggressiveness over the last two postseasons.
“I think they have a lot of energy,” Strider said. “They have a lot of confidence. We’re a really good club when it comes to coming to the park every day all year round and showcasing our talent. And I think in the postseason, in such a limited sample size, you throw a lot of those long-term things out the window.
“Like I said, we need to change the way we focus and prepare for the postseason or improve the results.”
The Phillies are the last team standing from the East Coast. The four remaining clubs’ regular season win totals were 90, 90, 90 and 84. The Diamondbacks will be a tough opponent, but the Phillies couldn’t have asked for a better draw, with home-field advantage in the NLCS and again in the World Series, if they face the Astros and not the Rangers. Without winning the NL East, they reaped most of the benefits of being a division winner.