Braves inexperienced against Dodgers

LOS ANGELES – The Atlanta Braves have not played much in the playoffs in the last five years. In fact, it would be one, the one they played here Thursday night. When they came back for the first time, this change of course came a little earlier than anyone – including the Atlanta Braves – could have expected. It is possible, even probable, that they lost whatever the way they played.

Hyun-jin Ryu was very energetic, if one could see a change of precision in these terms. And the Los Angeles Dodgers did what they usually do, that is, pick a few slots in a few hours and send them cold in the stands. They do not really participate in sustained rallies. The Braves are really better at that. No, the Dodgers are more into the offense of the back leg, which all kids do nowadays anyway. Young guard.

So, perhaps, just for those few hours of the first game of the National League Division series, it would be best to leave out the notion that the Braves entered a ball stadium at the feet of the San Gabriels and for a moment, they forgot what foot. went first and who went second in a defeat 6-0 against the Dodgers.

Of course, no one would admit that the situation was getting a little big here, that the air was getting a little thick, that there were suddenly a lot of things at stake. They had made their way into this series for six months, six Honest months, burying the best team on paper (Washington Nationals) and the best team on August 11 (Philadelphia Phillies) to do it, to the point that no one could claim it was a stroke of luck or a sweet outcome. They were better than these teams. And although the Braves are not nearly fully developed, the National League has not grown in the muscles of its grand boys, nor in comparison with the other leagues. Thus, the Braves of Freeman and Acuña and Albies and Camargo and Markakis would not have to apologize for their party, any more than, for example, the Dodgers would have to apologize for theirs.

The Braves scored their points. They prevented their races. They played the game better than most. They survived, like any other ball club that starts by trying to find its way and ends up having found a way to win a handful of games more than the teams they had to beat.

So, about Thursday night. It does not look great. It happens. They looked young. It happens. They launched imprecise throws and made bad decisions. They missed a sign. They made a mistake in defense and were so close to the goal that they sacrificed a four-point gap by hitting a person who had hit .052 this season. Against a strong team like the Dodgers in the playoffs, that's how a team gets out of the gate with a zero-to-one hole in the games, how 1-0 in the first inning becomes 4-0 at the second, becomes 5-0 in the sixth and 6-0 in the eighth, becomes a bus ride back to the hotel, all before it really starts.

It's not like it's ugly. It was so complete.

Braves ace Mike Foltynewicz, who had spent six months defeating a four-year mark not to his advantage by winning 13 games and recording 183 innings and posting a score of 2.85, gave up home with Joc Pederson in the category two goals. first run. Subsequently, he called the fastball "pretty good", except that it was a 0-2 throw that landed at 50 meters. He would spend 25 more throws in the first inning without more damage, then get the first two outs and the other two strikes in the second, only to hit a batter on a 0-2 throw, run the next batter and allow a point. Max Muncy's three-point circuit.

"Yes, just about every night I thought about it," said Foltynewicz.

He finished after two innings (after beating the top of the third). His first start in the playoffs was canceled in the moments of a few throws to two.

The score was still 4-0, still a little manageable if we did not count what Ryu was doing, when rookie Ronald Acuña Jr. was one of the best 20-year-olds you've ever seen, and even better than that. , started the sixth inning by reaching the first base on an error. The strength of the Braves' composition lay behind him. If Ryu, who once since April, had won more than 89 courts in a match, had to be obtained, it was the time and place.

Acuña took off for the second goal.

In the sixth inning. From a four-sleeve game. In which the Braves had managed a previous runner at the second base.

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