And The Heat is On as the song goes by Glenn Frey. The 2020 playoffs are here!!! The 60-game season has come and gone and it seems like yesterday that we were gearing up for the opener at the NY Mets. This regular season finished yesterday with the Braves winning the NL East for the third straight year with a record of 35-25. With the season beginning on March 24 with so much uncertainty, the season has ended on time and still going strong.
“Everything we do moving forward, everything we’ve done so far, we’re doing it for our fans.”
Ronald Acuna, Jr.
The team ended the regular season with a .268 batting average. Highest team average I can remember for quite some time. Two players that are in the running for NL MVP. First baseman Freddie Freeman (lead NL) with a .341 avg., 13 hrs, and 53 RBIs. Outfielder and DH Marcell Ozuna hit .338, 18 hrs (lead NL), and 56 RBIs (lead team).
So now the team waits for what is next to come. The Braves earned the number two spot in the NL playoffs and will host the Wild Card Round versus the number 7 Cincinnati Reds (31-29). There are no byes in this years playoffs, all teams play a best of three Wild Card Series. Because the league wants to limit all travel during this postseason, the high seeds will host all the games during the Wild Card Series. But if you really think about it there is not a home field advantage because the league has decided still not to allow fans in the games. I do not like the decision because you could just make face covering mandatory, football is doing this. But then look at it that way, MLB has gone this far and they don’t want to screw it up now. Sure, the host team with have familiarity of the ballpark, but that’s about it. It doesn’t take too long to get familiar with an away ballpark, all have four bases and each team fields nine players.
With the Braves winning the NL East again, this makes 20 division titles, which is the most in MLB history, one more than the NY Yankees. But what matters most is World Series Titles which the Yankees have 27 and the Braves three (1914 w/Boston Braves, 1957 w/Milwaukee Braves, and 1995 w/Atlanta Braves).
The last two years that the Braves won the NL East has seen them lose in the first round to the LA Dodgers (2018) and the St. Louis Cardinals (2019). For the team and fans alike, hopefully this is a good year that ends up with a WS title. During the 1990’s the Braves won 14 straight division titles but came away with only the 1995 WS Championship. So Braves fans have a reason to be both optimistic and pessimistic with the teams chances. But each team is different. This year’s team has a high powered offense led by Freeman, Ozuna, and Acuna. They have a great bullpen to close out games, but starting pitching is suspect. The starting rotation at the beginning of the season was not the starting rotation at the end of the season. The only constant was Max Fried, who is the ace of the rotation with Mike Soroka out.
The Braves will go into the Reds series with these three starting pitchers:
Game 1: Max Fried, 7-0, 2.25 ERA ( 11 starts)
Game 2: Ian Anderson, 3-2, 1.93 ERA ( 6 starts)
Game 3: Kyle Wright, 5.21 ERA ( 8 starts)
First pitch at Truist Park is set for 12:07pm Wednesday, September 30.
Photos 1 Courtesy of Talking Chop
Photo 2 Courtesy of Atlanta Braves
Photo 3 Courtesy of NBC Sports Chicago
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