Show #492: NLDS Sweep Wrap Up

You're listening to Atlanta Baseball Talk, your weekly podcast for all things at Atlanta Braves. Welcome to Atlanta Baseball Talk show number 492. Today is Thursday, October 8th, 2020. My name is Steve. I'm joined by both Hammy and Curtis and folks. Please help out the show by telling your friends sharing links and writing reviews. If you do the Dodgers Padre series goes five. There's no way. Let

it go three and a half. Yeah, seriously, at least Padre's win tonight. Let's you know, tire folks out a little bit. We're going to get the best the Dodgers got to throw at us. Yep, it's true. It's coming. Yep. All right folks, and tonight's show, and tonight's show, it is game three. Sweet petition against the Marlins. And we will break it all down, but first a

quick break. I felt like our past two shows have been subdued a little bit. I mean, I know we've been pumped, but just the sort of throaty celebration at the beginning. And I guess, deservedly so, right? We hadn't won anything, but I feel we deserved to let loose and poor champagne on ourselves as it were. Well, you know, it's interesting. I was kind of thinking about

that two. There was something about the red series. One, you know, the pitching was scarier. And game one was so fraught and tense. And we actually made it through. And that felt like, you know, it broke a lot of bad juju and all that stuff. There wasn't a ton of drama in this series, really. Maybe game one. Okay, but certainly once we got past game one,

sure, sure. I didn't even just not even all of game one. Right. Yeah. You're right. You're right. Once we sort of took the lead that we needed to take and we're always going to take it was obvious. It was over. Yeah. And so good. Like we all, I think, predicted that we would win in four. Right. We thought the Kyle right, the Kyle right game. Game

three would be the one that we would drop. And how they want to Anderson start for the record. Sorry. I'm sorry. I thought it would be the Anderson. Oh, that's right. Yeah. Yeah. That was that was silly. I was all right. Not. It was all in on Cal. Right. But think about how good this is for the team. Right. Darno gets a rest after starting every

game. They didn't have to dip into whatever Frankenstein bullpen pitching configuration. We were going to get from get for game four. No max freed on short rest in game five. Acunius wrist gets more rest. None of right back to what we talked about last night. None of Oday, Matt, sick Smith, Melanson, the guys who had gone two days in a row had to get a third

day in. They get three more days of rest. I mean, what a perfect, perfect day this was. Yeah. The series could not have played out better. And you get work for guys that have sat like mentor and green. Jacob Webb, Webb, look up. Web. Mentor looked amazing. Green, you know, was better. Right. He'd been a little shaky. Green was better. Yeah, Curtis. Totally. For him to

be able to touch the guys that he was sort of saving. And to even and to come in and really low pressure situations, frankly. But still not, you know, still pitch, not like they had a seven run lead. Just well, they got this thing going now. Right. Don't you? Do you think they got this thing going in the bullpen where they have this scoreless ending streak?

I mean, I guess since game, I guess whatever, Martin Smith gave up one, never mind or Martin gave up one, didn't they? But they're, but we're right. I mean, eighth inning of game one against the Marlins. That was the last run scored. Right. But the bullpen just as much as starting pitching, right? Has been. I mean, freed has been the one who gave up the most

know, it'll be copper. It'll be copper to keep those in a seven game series. Sure. Which is, you know, I, I maybe I clearly didn't know until I was listening today. It is idiotic that they are going to have seven straight days. Totally. Why? I could have sworn. I could have sworn that it was these first two series. But then with the NLCS, then it stopped

the madness. Well, the why is because they added another series and more games and they all want to finish early and not, you know, I don't know. I mean, they're playing in Dallas and San Diego, right? I mean, that's where the sea is. Right. It's the Rangers. It's not like they're playing in Minnesota and Chicago or something. And maybe it had to do with the broadcast

partners. I don't know. No. I don't know. It doesn't it doesn't make it on a sense. It certainly doesn't favor us. No. No, it does not. But I mean, look, and we'll talk about this more after we walk through the game. But, you know, it was the pitching that carried the day in both series. It's crazy. All right, guys. I mean, it's it's jaw dropping. Right.

Well, it's history. I mean, you know, it's no hyperbole that it's they put up historic numbers. And we'll get into some of that too. But I mean, this is like record book stuff. Yeah. And you're and you're reading, you know, the headlines about it, these three, right? And you're and if you've been able to see that headline, you know, at the beginning of the season or

even, you know, as we go into spring training for any of this happened, you'd be like, that's amazing. Our pitchers are amazing. But then to see that it was freed Anderson and right who the ones who did it is just it's stunning. Right. And Matt sick getting coming back from the Yips and mentor, you haven't, you know, getting a second life. Yeah, man, unbelievable. That, you

know, I'm not even trying to be funny. That Luke Jackson had nothing to do with it. Right. Who was such a big piece last year, though, you would think, you know, he'd be a part of this. He's not even on the roster. Because we don't need him, right? I mean, because we're good without all of his shaking us. Yeah, he had a lot of upside, but

his downside, we don't have to live with anymore. Unbelievable. Yeah. All right, guys, so let's walk through the game and we start at the top of the first. Of course, the braves are the visiting team now in game three. So it was, it went by in a flash because Akunia first pitch fly to center, Freddie second pitch ground ball, O'Zuna second pitch fly to deep center,

five pitches, about two and a half minutes in the top of the first is over. Not voting well for the braves. Right. 500 miles an hour. But at least it didn't strike out. That is true. And yeah, I mean, pump in 99 and 100 was six. Right. So bottom of the first strike out a single on a, on a fastball that's not high enough, you know,

they're trying to get sort of above his bat level and could not. You know, Aguilar hits a ground ball up the middle. It's first and second. And then a strike out of Dickerson and a ground ball and right gets out of what's, you know, a couple of innings with a lot of traffic on the base paths. But, you know, I mean, I, I'll take the words

out of your mouth. Right. This is some of the pattern we've seen with Anderson and right. Yep. Yeah. So top two, Darnau singles, of course, Ozzy walks, Dan's B walks. So all of a sudden we start to see six dough does not have great command today. Yeah, which I was not unhappy to see. By the way, if you're keeping score, do vol strikes out seemed somewhat

predictable. And I think that's just nice. And then the Dickerson play. So Markeke hits a sinking liner really a great hit. I'm sure that it's going to find ground. And Dickerson makes a diving catch catches it really like half an inch off the turf. And also, um, um, right. This is, Darnau is on third. Yeah. But like pops up fast enough and gets the ball in

to hold. The runner at third. Yeah. Yeah. And you know, it's, you know, it's, right. I mean, Darnau did not play it as well. Yeah. Yeah. Um, you know, I was watching on TV. And the broadcast guys are like, like, that's one of the toughest kind of balls. Um, at that trajectory and at that height for a guy on third to read. My wife was running

errands and listening to the braves broadcast. And they gave Darnau a really hard time. Um, said he absolutely should have tagged up and gotten home. Um, you know, and that felt like a big opportunity here. And we've managed, you know, not to, not to score. Because widely then grounds out. And six toe gets out of it. Well, the first sort of mental mistake that we have

seen from the braves, frankly, this postseason. I mean, they just have not allowed themselves to beat themselves, you know. No, no one forced errors. I, I, I, I, there's been a lot of things that I've done. I'm a couple, right? Riley missed through one to first. Dan's we had one. But yes, Kurt, to your point, it's been very, very little, um, unforced errors and making the

good plays when they needed to make the good plays like Markeka said that throated Dan's be yesterday. Yeah. And but I wasn't worried at this point because I'm like, it's the second inning and we've, we're already to six toe. So he got out, but this isn't like that thing of like member. Oh, we left him on the second inning. I'm like, we have this dude's number.

And they, and they, they can't afford to start bringing in relievers in the fourth inning. That's not the, how this team is built. Right. Exactly. Yeah. Um, so bottom of the second, right. And after those missed opportunities, I'm all like, all right, Kyle, you got to come out here and go one, two, three. And just get, you know, get the offense back on the field. And

he, you know, he leads off with a walk on what should have been a call strike. But he, he walks, he walks Chisholm. Um, a guy getting his, you know, the second baseman, getting his, his postseason debut, by the way, but follows that up, have a hit. What's that? Who is he? Who is yet to have a hit? Or didn't have a hit today, right? Uh,

I want to say he did something later in the game. I don't know. He had the double off of green. Yeah, that's right. Oh, but that was later at this point. At this point. Correct. Um, so after the walk to Chisholm, two ground balls, uh, Chisholm's a third and then a strikeout to end the game or to end the inning, huge recovery. After that lead off,

walk, and then we get to the third and six toe continues to not find the strike zone. I mean, it's just a beautiful start to the evening lead off walk to Akunya. He steals second. And then the madness, let's just talk about the madness of the replays for a second. So they, you know, it's a close play at second. And there's a replay on if Akunya's

called safe, do, you know, they want to, there's a replay to see if he's out. He, the, the call stands, right? Akunya stole on the first pitch of Freddy's at that. And we're about to get back to play. And then all of a sudden, you see Freddy talking to the ump. And he's like, you know, pointing and, you know, like saying what? And what? And clearly,

Freddy's like, wait a minute. What's the count? So it says, oh, and one up on the jumbo tron in the, um, in the stadium, they go back to the tape and show that the ump never made a call. I mean, his arms never leave his sides. And not to mention that the pitch is a ball. Like it's not in the strike zone. So they literally have

to go back to New York to watch that. I mean, talk about the ump's like you had one job. Yeah. No insane. Insane. And this really, really long break in the action, which surely doesn't help six toe. You know, who can't find the strike zone anyway? And it's out there. I got to say the ump's had been horrible all season. In a way that's been noticeable.

And it's like, is it due to the strange circumstances like or is something changed? But it seems they're just horrible, especially to the balls and strikes are horrible. The ball, yeah, the, the, the calls at home play are terrible. I saw someone posit that, you know, a bunch of umps opted out and maybe some of the better ones opted out. I don't, I don't know if

there's any validity to that. But so it makes sense, though. Sure. So play resumes. And we talked about Freddie was going to bounce back this game. And that played out Freddie singles, Ozone singles, Darno, of course, doubles. Um, on, you know, right. So that was an interesting at that for a couple of things. One, um, six toe no longer is throwing 100 that, that ball that

Darno hit is at 95. And it is so far out of the strike zone. It's the highest. It is the most elevated pitch Darno has hit in his career at four foot. Wow. What's that? Wow. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, nuts, right? Um, Ozzy fly ball, which moves Darno to third. Uh, our first sack fly, I think of the last decade, certainly of the postseason. Um, but

I mean, Dan's, we actually hit a sack fly, do volstrucks out to end the inning. Um, but, you know, we've got a lead. We were up four zip. Uh, in the middle of the third game over for sure. I mean, we talked about, um, how big a one run might seem for the Marlins with, you know, our pictures looking like they're looking for runs. Just they've

had to just feel like the seasons over there. I agree. Yeah. Um, and certainly after the bottom of the third, right? Where again, okay, you got a lead Kyle go out there and just mow them down. And the, you know, this half inning starts with a first pitch hit by pitch. And then a seeing eye single, it's first and second to be followed by the tag

of our strikeout Anderson strikeout, a walk to Cooper. Now your bases loaded. Chism grounds out to Ozzy. Kyle is out of it. And, you know, between the runs in the top of the inning and getting out of that basis loaded mess in the bottom of the inning, the game is really over at this point. Particularly with what we see from Kyle right the next three innings.

Um, you know, so top of the fourth six toe is gone. Rogers is in. Two quick outs, Akunia walks, Freddie doubles, although actually I think because of the bobble in center, he was, it was a single fan on the area. But another great well struck ball for Freddie into a gap. It is five o. Right. An Akunia walks. Yeah. He's a nice strikeout, right? I mean,

Akunia walks. It's a two walks to play. Yeah, two walks today. Absolutely. Bottom of the fourth and right is settling down. He goes one, two, three and looks really strong. Let's talk about right for a second. So. The curve ball was really good. The slider was really good. The fastball when he needed it. He threw his change up some. I mean, he was really effective. You

know, and again, sort of mature beyond their yield. And then he's, he's been in the first three innings. And that's, you know, he's been in the first three years. He bends, but doesn't break, doesn't get rattled by the moment and rebounds. I mean, he's stronger in the last three innings. And he is in the first three innings. And that is just amazing with all the traffic

he had on the base paths in the first three. You know who deserves a lot of credit for that. I think is Darno. I think Darno, I mean, obviously offensively had the series of his life. But all the accolades that we talked about these young pitchers. Same guy behind the plate for all of them. Right. Yeah. Even though free didn't wasn't at his best right got

us to where we needed to with that one. And obviously catching all those guys out of the pen, keeping Anderson calm. And you just in today, particularly you saw it in all those situations. He was just like. Right's biggest fan. You know, he was just like way to go. Good pitch. He was encouraging him. Um, I mean, he deserves a ton of credit for the success

of those guys 1000%. I mean, calling those games and getting those results. I mean, he's part of the partner. He's a partnership, right? Those guys have to execute. But he is, you know, he's the director out there. Right. And it's, you know, sometimes it's not so much the craftiness of which pitch and when to call the pitch. You know, I mean, sometimes that's coming from the

dugout or something. It's just being there and being a calming force or an encouraging force. And I think he had both of that. Right. He called amazing games throughout. Yeah. You can't imagine that any of those guys even free the most experienced and quotation marks that they're there. They weren't shaking off anything. Right. Yeah. Yeah. It's true. You know, something else dawned about dawned on me

about, um, Darnell behind the plate today. And we talked about it all season. We love the whole like after a great pitch, you know, point is glove at the pitch or good job. Kind of stuff. Yeah. And I think that, I think that a lot of that is truly encouragement. Right. Not only, hey, you hit your spot or hey, we're setting them up. Well, you know,

like you're executing. But I think on some of them, it is sort of putting pressure on the, um, before he has made a call, you know, I'm a veteran catcher. I'm saying that's a strike. Do you really not want to call that a strike? Little game. So, yeah, I absolutely think that. Well, and to, we're on that point and add on to it. I mean, he

does that when the ball is sort of even slightly outside. But like you said, the, it's hitting his glove. Like where he's setting up the ball is hitting his glove. So, you know, they're going to work guys away. They're going to work guys inside whatever. So he's, uh, supporting that they are throwing the ball where they need to throw the ball, even if they're not getting

a call, which is exactly the way you have to pitch. I mean, you can't throw everything over the plate. Or if you don't get a strike, you know, if you don't get a call, you think you deserve, don't get discouraged too, right? We're going to keep throwing it here. That's a good pitch. You're doing what you should be doing. Exactly. Exactly. Uh, so top five and

more runs, Aussie doubles, Dan's B singles and home. Duval doubles, almost homers drives Dan's B home. Yeah. You mentioned that Duval got a hit. No, I know he really, you were actually on bass and everything. Wanted to follow. Yeah. He admired it a little bit. Well, it did look like it was going out for a minute. Yeah. Um, and we are at seven zip. Uh, when

we get to the middle of the fifth, um, bottom of the fifth right is still dealing another one, two, three. And Ham was, it was a good point. You had texted Kurt and I didn't even realize it was a, you know, I wasn't thinking it was against their one, two, one, two, and three batters in the lineup. And it was seven pitches. Yeah. He was at

60. Uh, uh, yeah. He, I think it was like seven pitches, but he, um, first pitch, like first pitch pop up, then, you know, three pitches, um, two, two, a ground out to the second batter than Aguilar, I guess the third and struck him out on three pitches, um, looked insane. Yeah. I'm not to take anything away from how he was pitching, but their approach got

so bad. He's got to take some other appearance, um, Ozone and Darno get on, but nothing doing there. Bottom of the sixth, which would end up being Kyle's, um, final inning. He finished this and he finishes off. Um, who he faces six shut out innings, guys, unbelievable. Crazy. Three hits. One walk. How many walks? Two two walks in seven case, seven case. Yeah. And two days

in a row where guys came out and looked shaky. And looked scary right off the bat and managed to wiggle out of it. And, um, from that point, they, it was like the opportunity was lost to get to them. It was like when Gov and used to pitch. And if you didn't get to go have it in the first inning, you were in for a long

day. And, um, we saw it. Uh, with both of these guys back, back, I mean, it's just, it's, it's, oh, my God. NLCS boys. I can't even believe it. Well, I mean, all right. I get, well, we'll, we'll preview it on Sunday. Yes. Yes. Exactly. So, okay. Um, top of the seventh, nothing doing for the Braves. Bottom of the seventh, mentor makes his first appearance of

the series. Two groundouts and a strikeouts and looks absolutely great doing it. Top eight, no runs. Bottom eight, Jacob Webb makes his, um, first appearance of the postseason works around a single, but he looks great. And I don't know if you guys, um, were in front of the first inning. In front of the TV in the top of the ninth, they showed Webb in the, uh,

in the dugout, like with both hands above his head and like banging on the top of the, of the dugout and just like so thrilled with the towel overs had just having the best time. Yeah. That's awesome. So great. Um, top nine, Dan's be triples. Nothing else happens. Bottom nine, Shane Green comes in finishes it off. Pache. Um, I mean, I'm not sure if I'm gonna

get to the top nine. And puts away the last out and, uh, we're going to go in LCS boys. Oh, it's, yeah, it's, I mean, it's really, it's really happening. Um, all right, guys, so look, let's talk about what the team is accomplished in these first two series right after this quick break. Alright, so guys, I mentioned it a little bit in the beginning of the

show, right? But a couple guys, Freddie, particularly and, um, well, mentioned in the post game interviews today that like all anyone was talking about heading into the postseason was the Braves offense. And rightly so, it was, you know, maybe the best in baseball. But the pitching, um, you know, was like other worldly, right? Uh, uh, a few numbers. 22 scoreless innings in the first series against

the Reds 19 scoreless innings to close out the Marlin series. There are four. 49 total innings across the two series. Opponents scored in only three of them. And all in one game, right? The first game against the Marlins. Uh, Braves scored 25, 24 runs to the opponent's five. And some great stuff on Twitter, I saw. Um, so the Braves closed out the NLDS on a 17

to one run after Akunya got hit in game one. You know, that was from Zach. That was especially GS squad. Well, true bad experience in that game. Not familiar. NLDS immediately added to Team Dinner and was fking the game against them. I didn't know the size actually, but the roles the overall mindset is still in that game, so, um, the boys had a bigger league in

their mind, a bigger compete weigh-ins, and, with their radio delivery line. I don't know. Tally of course taught by broad teams of the second team in postseason history with four shutouts in their first five games of a single postseason. Again, the 1905 giants. Um, and the braids with their four shutouts this postseason tied second most by a team in a single postseason. The only other team

with more were the 2016 Indians who threw five, but you know, we've got one more series and hopefully two more. Um, we have eight more wins in a Yeah, eight more wins to go. Guys, it was just, you know, look, they were that first game against the Reds, which could not have been more tense. And, you know, once we pushed that first run across in Game

Two against the Reds, um, and otherwise, I mean, you know, it wasn't that much nail biting. We dominated, you know, one of the, um, moments that's so doubt for me, what actually wasn't during one of the games. It was when, um, it was when I guess the game was on the MLB network. And Frank Thomas was in the booth with A. Rod and Poppy. Was that

when it was the MLB game? Or is that the Fox Sports game? I forget that that that's the Fox Sports post game. And so that was game one after game one. Yeah. Um, and you know, they were all obviously talking about, you know, saying positive things, but Frank Thomas was like the braids are legit. And there was just a sort of like he wasn't just saying

that there was like, sort of sincere recognition. He's like, they are balanced. They have great offense. You know, after he'd seen three games, they have amazing starting pitching. Their bull pin is nasty, nasty, nasty, like they are serious contenders. And he's right. I mean, they showed it. They showed it when, you know, the offense was down when we were, we talked about it night to night.

Right. Freddie and Akunia aren't hitting. And then the pitching is amazing. And you get Darnell and Danes be hitting homers. Um, when free doesn't have it, then we just the offense or wraps like all the pitching, the pitching, the pitching, the pitching, the pitching, the pitching, the pitching, the pitching, the pitching, the pitching, right. We are the defense. We taught, I mean, the, all those plays

Aussie made the play that Markeke is made, right. We had some errors, but we were largely superstar, and we made the plays that we needed to make that winning teams make like we are. We showed it all, we're showing it all, right. We are, we are peaking right now. This is the kind of team we've been jealous of. Seeing in the postseason for the last 20

years. You know, oh my God, look at that bullpen. It's so, wow, that timely hit. And you know, I mean like, yeah, the Braves are doing all of that this postseason. Yeah. And now, just like Mike Tyson punch out. We're not, it's not glass Joe anymore. Whatever. You got to go up to a level. We're going up a level from the Marlins to the Dodgers. So

we need to be firing on also. We need to engines. Don't do anything. We need to invest associated, we believe the team is as good as the Dodgers in a lot of ways. Yeah. Come on. Yeah. Yeah.jack. Jack. I know. We need to be safe. Okay. N and it's like that. We have something out there. So we just start the last end. We need to be

back home. Okay. We are more than one of the defenders. I agree. But, you know, Akuna. Darn. I mean, Darnau. Akuna and Dan's B. Right? Carried the team offensively. We had some timely hits by some other guys. I mean, no, you know, Freddy's Freddy's Game Winner and Game 1 against the Reds was as timely as possible. Right? He Freddy got the the runs going in Game

3 today. Ozuna had some timely hits, even Duval, who still looks as lost as can be, had some timely hits. Ozzy had a timely hit today. Riley. Riley's had some timely hits. Look, I mean, it's all the pieces were there. This is not 2018 against the Dodgers where there was zero chance. There was less than zero chance. The best we could hope for was to win

a game. This is not this is not that series coming up. And it just seems like the brave so many of these postseason's the brave's have not been playing well going into the postseason and then like played their absolute worst baseball once they got to the postseason. And that first game, it was almost like the bubble was popped, you know, when it got they won that

game. They didn't lose that game more importantly. And it was just like it was this cleansing of this aura that has surrounded this team since 2001, you know, I mean, that it was that something was finally going to go their way that they were going to win that game. And the momentum since then, it's just it's a whole the they looks, I mean, they looked tense

in that game. One against the Reds. They've looked as loose as any team. You would think they were playing spring training games, you know, I mean, they're hoot and how are you talk about Jacob web doing all that stuff. I mean, there's smiles everywhere. And I know that goes. I know that goes with winning. But I mean, this is just. This is like emotional release that

a lot of these guys don't bear the burden of all these missed opportunities in the postseason because they're too young to know any better. But, you know, Freddie Freeman knows and he, you know, had some amazing post game comments today just about what this meant. I something really struck me about what a great leader that Freddie Freeman is because they were asking him about the pitching.

Specifically the starting pitching and how we ended up in the scenario where you've got three rookies. Basically, maybe freeds not a rookie, but you know what I mean in this situation. And he never called out Fulti or Nukem. The only thing he said was that Saroka got hurt. And obviously that had a big impact on it. But he never threw Fulti and Nukem under the bus

and said, those guys didn't show up and were terrible. And so they left us an alert. I mean, it was all about. Positive. And I just thought, I mean, it's a little thing that you wouldn't pick up on or even think about if you're not a guy who won is obviously a super quality human being, but to a great leader and a guy that, you know,

is enjoying probably this moment as much as anybody. Yeah. Yeah. You've got that quiet calm leadership of Freddie. Markegus, we know. I mean, they talk about that a ton. You've got the childish exuberance. Of, of Akuna for one. Right. You know, one of, you know, the OG listener, Leah. She tweeted out today how great that every time they, you know, the camera pans to the Braves

dugout that Akuna is like three feet out in front of the railing waving a towel and just jumping up and down. You've got, you know, weird, weird, awesome, OZuna added into the mix. I mean, yeah. It's just, you know, it's, you know, it's like a lot of things. I mean, there's a lot, all that intangible stuff seems to be here too. You know what else I

loved about this series? This we're just reflecting. Sure. Malanson. Right. I think, you know, we beginning of the season, one of our preseason bets was, and this is not a reason for me to brag, but I will since I've got it. And I created it. As we picked who we thought would have the most saves by the end of the season. And I picked Malanson reluctantly

and you were like, Oh, that's not a bad pick. As Snickers Smith's going to come back late and he's not gonna trust him. And he's, you know, old 123 snicker. And you know, and Malanson was not dominant this season. I mean, no, it was a bit of a roller coaster. It was a Malanson season. I think that is sort of the book on him. And he

looked amazing. Yeah, he's been for a lot of these, you know, and we just like, you know, less than, you know, just very few pitches. I don't know, but I think we all know that the biggest thing is that it's just a bunch of things. I don't know what it is. And I think we're going to be kind of catching up, you know, we've had some

kind of hard times. I mean, I think it's going to be a lot of things to do with that. And I would say, what happens is that I think it's going to be a really good one. It's going to be a really good one. And it seems like both times in both games, the announcer would be like, you're not really a strikeout guy. It's sort of

a high to strike out to walk ratio or whatever. Walk to strike out ratio. And then he would just strike up a guy out on three nasty pitches. You know, he was just dominant. So more of that is good. More of that is good. Well, all these veteran guys in the bullpen. I mean, you know, hopefully they can figure out a way to retain some of

these. I mean, there's going to be a lot of issues. We'll talk about this in a later show. I'm sure. But I think that's really good. And I'm sure that I'm going to be able to do a lot of things to do with that. And I'm sure that I'm going to be able to do a lot of things to do with that. I'm going to be

able to do a lot of this the last season. Well, but I mean, you have these guys that have been there and have this experience. And, you know, we saw them sort of not be great during the regular season. Guys like Will Smith, who have just been ridiculous. Like this, they embrace this moment and they understand it because they've been there. And that's why clearly he

went out and, you know, cobbled this bullpen together with these guys. I mean, a guy like Darren O'Day, who spent his career planned for the the Orioles, but has this experience, you know, I mean, and it just bringing it all there. The wealth of what that bullpen is bringing to this team. I just cannot be overlooked. So deep to I mean, and Shane Green has been

shaky. But there was also long stretches of the season where he was the best really the best guy. Yeah. Yeah. And I mean, and he was another like, you know, took him from the tiger. It's just sort of saw the opportunity to snatch him up and sort of make him part of this and credit to an opalist for sort of a long term view of building

this dominant bullpen. Yeah. A bunch of groundwork laid last trade deadline for sure. Yeah. Yeah. You know, snicker talked in the post game. Today's like, look, we're going to be back out there tomorrow. There are guys that need to pitch. We got to keep ready. We got to keep muscles moving. You know, they've done a great job with the bubble. But I don't want everybody to

sit in the hotel room. You know, for the next three days, we're going to get out there. We're going to keep working. And I just love it. Monday boys Monday. Guys, so much like uncharted territory for us. In the last season, right? I mean, one, we're actually talking about a postseason series win. We're now talking about a second postseason. We're doing a second postseason series win.

We're headed to the NLCS. We're doing what seemed like a good idea with these same day post game wrap ups. I didn't quite count on, you know, making it to the NLCS and how late everything was going to start getting. Now that we're talking about it, these, these 2 p.m. starts are fine. Yeah, everybody. I'm going to be really inconvenient. And now another 5 minute show.

Yeah, without a 5 minute show in the 7th inning. It'll be dropping around 1 o'clock. I'm joined by no one tonight. Again. Ham was supposed to show up. He's not answering tax. That's snoring is Kurt on the couch. But my God, how great. I mean, just so great. So NLCS, look, it would be terrific if the Dodgers just didn't sweep tonight. It's one nothing right now.

Top of the second. And they've got runners on first and second with one out. Yeah. I mean, it was a tough game for the Padres last night. Right for the for Belongers, robbing of that Tatees home run, which would have put them ahead. And then almost getting to Jansen. In the 9th, but not being able to come back. I mean, that's a gut punch of a

game. On the flip side, nice to see Jansen be really shaky and maybe lose the the Closers role. But more of that on Sunday or keep the Closers role until we make him lose it permanently. That's right. Well, you know, we talked about this yesterday after the show. At some point, the Dodgers are not going to make it back to the World Series. I mean, the

Braves were such a dominant team in the 90s. The best team in the 90s. And, you know, they lost to far inferior teams like the Phillies and the Padres. And I'm not saying the Braves are a far inferior team in the Dodgers, but the Dodgers are the best team in base. Absolutely. I mean, they just don't. But it's just not. There is no foregone conclusion. Making

it to whatever this would be for is that four World Series in a row or three World Series in a row. I can't even remember. But that's really hard. They make it last year at the Nationals did. True. Well, the NEPLOS my theory completely out of the water. Sorry. They're 2019. They're due. They're due again. If only everyone had a $500 million payroll. It does help.

All right, guys. We've only put nine guys on the field and put one picture out of the time. Just like us, right? I mean, that's a sound I'll cliche and everything. But all this depth and all like the redundancy they have is great over a long season. But it's nine guys against nine guys. You know, 10 with the designated Huda Astrick. But that's what it is.

And I feel like we match up pretty well, especially when we're playing like we're playing now. Yeah, I mean, I'm looking at the box score. They haven't hit great this postseason. They've got like three guys that are batting over 250. That's sugar and Muncie. So, you know, I mean, it's not like, yeah, I mean, it might turn around. For them, just like it might turn around

for us where we've had guys that haven't really produced. But, you know, it's the same scenario. They've, they've got a long offensive lineup. And they've got guys that aren't producing. So you just got to limit it to holding them down to a couple of guys and obviously keeping it in the park. They hit tons of on runs and making sure that we scores and runs. That

would be I would also help. All right, guys. That is the show. We will be back on Sunday and our regular slot to preview. The NLCS a phrase we've never uttered on this show. All right, remember, you can find us at Speaker iTunes, Stitcher, Google Play and Spotify. You can always find us at AtlantaBaseballTalk.com. Be sure to follow us on Twitter at ATL BaseballTalk and to

like us on Facebook. Thanks again for listening and go braves! Thanks for listening to Atlanta Baseball Talk. Your weekly podcast for all things at AtlantaBraves. To find new shows to post in our forum or to send a comment, please visit us at at AtlantaBaseballTalk.com.