{"id":63225,"date":"2023-10-08T12:30:14","date_gmt":"2023-10-08T16:30:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/?p=63225"},"modified":"2023-10-08T12:08:18","modified_gmt":"2023-10-08T16:08:18","slug":"braves-offense-cold-nlds","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2023\/10\/08\/braves-offense-cold-nlds\/","title":{"rendered":"Braves’ Offense Goes Cold in NLDS Shutout Loss to Phillies"},"content":{"rendered":"

Even though it is several weeks before Halloween, the first game of the NLDS cast a chill wind through the Atlanta Braves, who suffered a 3-0 loss to the\u00a0<\/span>Philadelphia Phillies<\/span><\/a>\u00a0in Game 1 of the series Saturday night.<\/span><\/p>\n

Atlanta\u2019s regular-season\u00a0<\/span>offensive firepower<\/span><\/a>\u00a0went silent as the Braves were held without an extra-base hit, left seven on base, and went 0-for-5 with runners in scoring position. Scary indeed.<\/span><\/p>\n

Phillies\u2019 third starter,\u00a0<\/span>Ranger Suarez<\/span><\/a>, didn\u2019t allow a hit until there were two outs in the fourth. He and their bullpen were the figurative Brom Bones (the Headless Horseman) to the Braves\u2019 Ichabod Crane in this rendition of a frightening Halloween classic,\u00a0<\/span>The Legend of Sleepy Hollow<\/span><\/em>.<\/span><\/p>\n

Chilling, Not Thrilling<\/span><\/h2>\n

Rare Home Shutout<\/span><\/h3>\n

The shutout was a rarity. This was the first time the Braves had been shut out at home since August 2021 against the Giants. Atlanta was shut out twice this season in San Diego and in Toronto.<\/span><\/p>\n

On Saturday, that seemed like so long ago.<\/span><\/p>\n

The chilling offensive performance on Saturday wasted a decent outing by Braves\u2019 20-game winner\u00a0<\/span>Spencer Strider<\/span><\/a>, who allowed two runs and struck out eight in seven innings.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Phillies<\/span><\/a>\u00a0scored in the fourth inning as\u00a0<\/span>Bryce Harper<\/span><\/a>\u00a0walked and then moved to second on an errant pickoff attempt by Strider. The attempt came with an 0-2 count on\u00a0<\/span>Bryson Stott<\/span><\/a>, who brought Harper home with a single to left field.<\/span><\/p>\n

Harper extended the lead in the sixth with a solo shot that snuck over the wall in right field. The homer came on a slider down and in and didn\u2019t appear to be a bad pitch.<\/span><\/p>\n

Their final run came in the eighth as a catcher\u2019s interference call forced home\u00a0<\/span>Trea Turner<\/span><\/a>\u00a0to ground out the scoring.<\/span><\/p>\n

Missed Opportunities<\/span><\/h3>\n

The Braves had opportunities in the opener and failed each time.<\/span><\/p>\n

In the fourth,\u00a0<\/span>Matt Olson<\/span><\/a>\u00a0lined a single to left.\u00a0<\/span>Ozzie Albies<\/span><\/a>\u00a0reached on a force play. Olson was initially called out, but the Braves challenged, and the call was overturned. Phillies manager\u00a0<\/span>Rob Thomson<\/span><\/a>\u00a0then went to reliever\u00a0<\/span>Jeff Hoffman<\/span><\/a>, who walked\u00a0<\/span>Marcell Ozuna<\/span><\/a>\u00a0to load the bases. However,\u00a0<\/span>Michael Harris II<\/span><\/a>\u00a0went down swinging to leave the grounds full.<\/span><\/p>\n

Atlanta threatened in the sixth when\u00a0<\/span>Orlando Arcia<\/span><\/a>\u00a0led off the inning with a single and then advanced to third on a pinch-hit single by\u00a0<\/span>Eddie Rosario<\/span><\/a>. With the top of the order up,\u00a0<\/span>Seranthony Dominguez<\/span><\/a>\u00a0struck out Ronald Acu\u00f1a Jr. looking and\u00a0<\/span>Austin Riley<\/span><\/a>\u00a0swinging.<\/span><\/p>\n

In the eighth, Acu\u00f1a worked a leadoff walk and moved to second on a single by Riley. Olson flew out to center for the first out. Albies sent a sharp grounder toward the middle, but Turner made a diving stop and flipped the ball to second for the first out of an inning-ending double play.<\/span><\/p>\n

It only gets scarier. The Braves encounter the daunting task of facing\u00a0<\/span>Zack Wheeler<\/span><\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0<\/span>Aaron Nola<\/span><\/a>\u00a0in Games 2 and 3.<\/span><\/p>\n

On Monday, Atlanta turns to left-hander\u00a0<\/span>Max Fried<\/span><\/a>\u00a0and his\u00a0<\/span>infamous index finger blister<\/span><\/a>\u00a0to even the series in Game 2 before heading to Philadelphia for Game 3 on Wednesday.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Main Photo Credits: Brett Davis-USA TODAY Sports<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Even though it is several weeks before Halloween, the first game of the NLDS cast a chill wind through the Atlanta Braves, who suffered a 3-0 loss to the\u00a0Philadelphia Phillies\u00a0in Game 1 of the series Saturday night. Atlanta\u2019s regular-season\u00a0offensive firepower\u00a0went silent as the Braves were held without an extra-base hit, left seven on base, and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4804,"featured_media":63227,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[21,1071],"tags":[315,3820,300],"class_list":["post-63225","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-braves","category-mlb","tag-bryce-harper","tag-spencer-strider","tag-trea-turner"],"modified_by":"Evan Mazza, Site Editor","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63225","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4804"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=63225"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63225\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/63227"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=63225"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=63225"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=63225"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}