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LOS ANGELES – This is baseball, right? This is not a football match early September, off conference, starring Alabama and Nowhere Tech. These are the big leagues and what we know about this sport is that from the point of view of a match or two, there is no annoyance. It takes dozens and dozens of games to really know the real difference between the teams.
The offensive explodes, the rotation is heard and L.A. finally looks like the power we've been waiting for since the start of the season – but that will not matter if the Dodgers do not get closer in October.
What did the top rookie give to the Braves? Energy, enthusiasm, self-confidence and a quick start to become the NL's next energetic powerhouse.
From the Wild Cards round to the World Series, we'll be covering the 2018 playoffs.
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Nevertheless, one really feels that the Los Angeles Dodgers are playing Alabama against the Nowhere Tech of the Atlanta Braves. It's not just after two games in their National League division series, the Braves did not score. It's not that the Dodgers outclassed them 9-0 after Friday's 3-0 win in Game 2. It's not that the Dodgers hit 1,999 feet of circuitry in two evenings for Atlanta. No, what we feel is that batting and launcher launcher, this series is a total imbalance.
"You know, it's just not a guy," Braves manager Brian Snitker said after the second game. "It's a complete team affair right now, with regard to the absence of the offense." "You can not blame anyone, I mean, it's just our entire team is struggling to fight offensively right now. "
That's what happens when a team does not hit. This creates the illusion of a shift, an exaggeration that the gap between two teams is bigger than it really is. The two Dodgers pitchers of the series – Hyun-Jin Ryu on Thursday and Clayton Kershaw on Friday – split the Atlanta training in a way that seemed easy, although we know that there were a lot of Effort to do.
"As I say, collectively, we do not beat the bats well, and in addition to that, we faced two guys who did not miss them," Snitker said. "They did not miss, they did not miss places, they did not make any mistakes in 18 games, they were two types that were as accurate as possible."
It's a fair point, but teams have often clashed over playoff playoffs over the years, even teams that had more than one starting pitcher at a time. But no team did what the Braves did – or did not do, could be the best way to say – the last two nights. According to a study by ESPN Stats & Information, Atlanta became the second team to start a playoff series on the wrong end of white back-to-back games. The other was the 1921 Giants of New York.
LA's dominance over the Braves' offense was deepened. Atlanta eliminated 15 goals in the series and did not score a walk. The Braves did not beat the second goal in the first game. They had at least two baserunners at the third in the second match. Somehow – Ronald Acuna Jr. provided the best asset of the series in Atlanta by doubling the left center. field deviation on Kershaw's first night shot. He was stuck in third place when Kershaw dropped a 1-2 hook that blocked Nick Markakis.
The other leaving the Braves, who finished third, qualified in ninth against Kenley Jansen. They will probably leave this sequence out of the Braves season. Acuna lined up a single goal to reach the base, then reached third place on defensive indifference games back to back. You do not see it every day. Whatever the case may be, Friday's shutout marked the seventh consecutive game in which the Braves scored zero or one point.
On the other side of the register, five bombs were delivered to the house. They drew 12 walks. They scored in the first round both nights, so L.A. had the lead at the end of the 18 rounds of the series. You can see why Alabama Vs. Nowhere Tech come to mind.
But, again, it's baseball. You are only as good as your next runner, right? Well, for Atlanta, it's also a problem. The brave will be right Kevin Gausman on the hill, and it's great since Atlanta bought it for mid-season in Baltimore. The Braves will receive a boost from the local crown at SunTrust Park. A victory and it starts to get better.
However, the Dodgers will send Walker Buehler to the mound against Gausman. The scary thing for the rest of the playoff teams, let alone the Braves, is that as good as Ryu and Kershaw are, Buehler may be the Dodgers' ace right now. Moreover, as a right-hand man with a ridiculously diverse repertoire, it's not like the Braves can learn so much from the first two games and apply them to Buehler.
"Obviously, Kershaw was amazing tonight and some sort of vintage Clayton," said Buehler. "But at the same time, we throw with different hands, and a little different.It is great to watch, but I do not take much of what I retain from him or Ryu, just because the differences are quite net. "
The series is not over. It's baseball. One game does not bleed into the next. Talent levels vary from one team to another, but the best team loses a lot of time. That's one of the highlights of the game. Nevertheless, when you step back and look, player by player, where are the Dodgers' stars, and you weigh what it is the young star of the Braves, the present seems terribly inclined towards the Pacific Ocean.
If that's how it all goes, then maybe what we're watching is a kind of last lesson for the emerging Braves organization. In other words, the Dodgers show the Braves what they want to be when they grow up.
A victory, just a good night, could return this story. This happens all the time in the playoffs, when a series seems unbalanced until it does not go away. But the Braves are not only looking for their first win. They are looking for their first run and the potential ignominy of becoming the first club to ever score in a playoff series.
If Atlanta wants to turn the situation around, he will do it with the same players who have been fighting for more than a week. One of the main differences between the Dodgers and the Braves is the depth, as in Atlanta. Snitker does not have a magic lever to shoot.
"I will probably move some guys," said Snitker. "But the same guys are going to be there, I mean, again, we are who we are, and we are a fairly established lineup because we are not at the bottom of our bench. have not been all year. "
Then, sitting on the podium after the game, Snitker seemed to change his mind halfway, realizing how limited his options really were.
"So we just have to hope that – you know, and I do not know if moving guys, giving them a different look in the makeup when you beat the bats like we are, is even the answer." But we're trying something out. A little different on Sunday. "
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