It worked last time, so we’ll stick with the theme. No words, just links.
Rough first inning for Braves starter Ian Anderson. Couldn't locate, was fortunate to limit damage to two runs. Fans here sound irritated, as if they pulled up to their neighborhood Waffle House couldn't get a table right away.
— Dylan Hernández (@dylanohernandez) October 17, 2021
Go @Braves!
— Waffle House (@WaffleHouse) October 19, 2021
"I think at the core of success, as a team, guys just have to care about each other. And I think this group does. I think this group cares a lot about each other."#BattleATL pic.twitter.com/p8YwKfDG1f
— Bally Sports: Braves (@BravesOnBally) October 19, 2021
Today's off-day #Braves GIF compilation video features Ron Washington and it's my magnum opus. #BattleATL #Postseason #NLCS pic.twitter.com/1iGA0Q8O66
— Baseball GIFs (@gifs_baseball) October 18, 2021
"Sand went in my eye, man. I'm human." ?@ozzie and Wash arguing never gets old. pic.twitter.com/h1dIsGGNRW
— Bally Sports: Braves (@BravesOnBally) October 19, 2021
Congratulations to Michael Harris for being chosen by Baseball America as the Atlanta Braves minor league player of the year! Currently the #4 prospect in the organization, Harris hit .294 with 7 home runs, 26 doubles and 64 RBI’s in 101 games in his season with the Rome Braves. pic.twitter.com/vXMbVOv01Q
— Rome Braves (@TheRomeBraves) October 19, 2021
Game 3.
— Atlanta Braves (@Braves) October 19, 2021
Presented by @TruistNews | #BattleATL pic.twitter.com/jsltPDuoyI
Here’s a song for the Dodgers:
That Wash video is priceless!
Agree with tfloyd, that video is gold. Thanks for sharing, Ryan.
Marc, you staying awake for the game with kid no. 2? or was it no. 1?
Both Wash videos, actually
I hope it’s not Atlanta, but with the intensity of the first 2 games, we are due for a letdown game for the pitching staff. My guess is we’ll see a lot of runs scored in at least one of the 3 games in LA and if we go back to Atlanta they will be nailbiters again.
Great stuff. And in the first video, wasn’t that Chavez Ravine on the drums?
You can’t do that!!
Oof. Live by the aggressive baserunning, die by the aggressive baserunning.
Has Ron Darling been told he’s playing the role of the Dodgers Hype Man?
I would’ve sworn that Albies drive was going to drop….unfortunate but unsurprising momentum change.
Brutal baserunning…
Well, that was dreadful.
Oh, for the love of Pete.
Welp, déjà vu with game 3 of the 2020 NLCS.
We shoot ourselves in the foot in each half of the inning. Not a great sign
Not exactly the start we were looking for. When that ball came out of Morton’s hand my first thought was that it would be crushed.
Well, it’s not like ANYONE thought we would go up 3-0.
I’m out. Wake me if they win. Let’s see if I am the jinx. (And yes, I realize this is the exact same situation as game 2)
@9 He loves himself some Dodgers.
I heard on MLB radio today that the only people who want to see a Braves/Red Sox series are the fans of those 2 teams. I think the national media fail to understand that most fan bases detest the Dodgers. I won’t watch a Dodger/Astro series.
I will choose to point my disdain toward Seager. Any way to remotely jinx his bat?
Relax. Unlikely to sweep these a**holes. A two run deficit is nothing this early.
There’s aggressive baserunning, and there’s dumbarse baserunning. We got both, I guess. No guarantee we score even if he stays at second though. Oh well. It’s early. Gonna need to score more than 3 to win anyways.
Yet another bullpen game
Four walks in this first inning, this is brutal.
Down by 2. Insurmountable!
Two runs only is good work there. Gotta hope Morton can settle down and give us a few more.
You can’t do much better after four walks and a homer than 2-0. Fewer innings like that, please.
@26 I actually think it’s literally the minimum possible after four walks and a homer? four walks guarantee a run, homer guarantees a run. That’s a nice bit of context.
@27:
Solo home run
Walk
Walk
Walk
Double play (pitcher to home to first)
Walk
One run.
@28 Nice! didn’t think of the double play. I stand corrected.
The biggest issue that I can see is that the Braves did a really good job through the first few games of outscoring the Dodgers. Until we can do that, we’re going to have a tough time winning this ballgame.
We got that going for us, which is nice.
Hey, I just got away from a work obligation and tuned in. Sounds like it could have been worse. Much better than last year’s game three, anyway.
https://media1.giphy.com/media/sa5waSGz8n5Ju/giphy.gif
Umpire has not made terrible calls but he is definitely favoring the pitcher. Unfortunately as wild as Morton has been, it hasn’t helped him much.
If I remember right, the Braves set an MLB postseason record by giving up ten runs in the first inning of game 5 of the 2019 NLDS, then broke that record the very next year with the eleven runs in the first inning of game 3 of the 2020 NLCS.
@31 LOL – eternal optimist
@18, what’s so detestable about these Dodgers? Is it mainly that they’re so successful? All I can think of is the alleged international rule-breaking/criminality, and the lack of any action on those allegations may mean there’s not much there. I certainly disliked Tommy Lasorda, but he’s been gone for a long time. Even if the fans are still the arrive-in-the-3rd-inning-leave-in-the-7th ones who were famous long ago, that seems more to be pitied/ignored than detested. Yes they have a ton of money, but they use it well and develop their own players and make smart decisions.
The writers making Waffle House putdowns, though…
What a horrible umpiring bias. Never seen so many Buehler balls called strikes.
Huuuuge break. Let’s get em!!
Oh, Riley just missed it. So close.
Missed it by | | that much (per Maxwell Smart).
Joctober, baby…
EDIT: Duvall’s 1st RBI… keep it up, fellas!
NEVER QUIT!
This team!!
I take back what I said earlier about the Umpire. He is very inconsistent.
@37 The money is what makes them detestable. Their payroll is 100M more than the Braves, who aren’t even a poor franchise.
I never disliked Lasorda.
C’mon Dansby… make ’em pay
EDIT: Conservo Wash… I think Duvall would’ve scored
Wooooooohooooooo
Yeah, inconsistent. Worked out for us now (on a terrible Ball/Strike call.) Tied up.
EDIT – And Swanson keeps Morton in the game!
Wow, Morton is hitting here?
That pitch to Pederson that should’ve been strike 3 is huuuuge now.
Really strange move to keep Morton in.
Is it that strange? We got the lead and he’d rather not have three bullpen games in a row.
#50
Life is unfair (never forget Eric Gregg/Livan Hernandez)
EDIT: Yeahhhh… keep it rollin’ boys, KO punch coming…
Should’ve started Striker Buehler.
I think Eddie’s still Eddie! Shame to see Freddie fly out. Game day error.
wow
Gotta love it when they give ya free runs!
Wash should’ve sent Duvall home to make it 4-2 (he might’ve been faked out by the fact that Adrianza was on deck at the time), but that walk erases that mistake.
Duvall scores anyway…
I’m pretty sure that when Wash held the runner on Swanson’s hit that Wash did not see that the call squirted into left field—may have been shielded. Obviously Duvall would have scored had he gone home.
Dang it Freddie
Hmm. Might have to stay up a bit later after all
This is the second time we’ve chased a starter and kept ours in this postseason. I don’t want to jinx it, so…
@60 Check the timestamp. I beat em by a minute!
They were yak yakking on the radio today about how Walker will likely go 8 and shut down the Braves. Blah, Blah, Blah….so much for that.
Hope Charlie can settle down for a couple more innings.
Sit down, Seager!!!
Playoff Charlie has guts.
I actually think Morton got Betts on that pick off throw, but they didn’t challenge. Take the gift and then the game.
That was a huge half inning by a guy who has earned every penny this season.
Pile on, fellas… no sleepytime
I would try to nudge Morton through at least one more inning.
@72: You have to. Otherwise he doesn’t “qualify.”
@67 Haha
Good job Oz
@73 – Ha! Chips concurs. And I agree. Barring a huge inning, run Morton out one more time.
@75 – It was an egregious call and certainly changed the complexion of the inning. He could have been out of it with the call that didn’t go his way. And instead all hell broke loose. Umpires should not have that kind of impact upon the game. I’m not complaining terribly (indeed, Mr. Gregg gave us our own) but…let it be on the field.
Gotta cash in here…
Duvalllll…yes
Oh, but Darling reminds us all that “the Braves don’t win here at Dodger Stadium.” He can get bent.
Dang it Travis
@79 He said that again?
I’m used to contrary commentators from watching pro wrestling. Darling can say whatever he wants.
3-run lead is enough room for Will Smith!
Need a double play from the troll doll.
Charles in charge.
Morton has been in control of their offense since that first inning.
Charlie “bend don’t break” Morton!!
Ron Darling was a Mets pitcher and is their color commentator. It should be no surprise that he doesn’t seem like to like the Braves.
Guess that will be it for Charlie? Great job keeping the game in check after the first.
Charlie Morton is the real deal. That is one of the most impressive performances by a starting pitcher I’ve ever seen. Given that first inning, how many other pitchers would have been able to go five yielding nothing further?
96 pitches. Do we try to get another inning on a short leash? Morton is up 2nd.
EDIT – He’s getting the hand shakes. He’s out.
Darling doesn’t care who wins — no national announcers do.
BTW, Darling’s book, “Game 7, 1986,” is really good.
As bad as those first few hitters went for Morton…this went as well as it could have possibly went.
I think Darling is really good at this.
@90 He’s a Mets announcer. He is blatantly favoring the Dodgers because that is who the networks want to win AND he is a mutt.
I would rather listen to a Dodger favoring Darling than dippy Chip.
Playing games when right fielders can’t see the ball doesn’t favor either team (as we’ve seen in the last two innings) but it’s not the sort of conditions an important baseball game should be played in.
Do the dodgers have any arms left? Seems like they switch pitchers every time you turn around.
@94 – I agree.
#93
Trust me, it doesn’t work like that.
I’ve been hoping our getting to their bullpen so deeply so reliably will come home to roost at some point…maybe this is it.
Freddie is coming around. Love it!
So Freddie has decided to become Wee Willie Freeman? Seems to be working.
@100 this strikes me as him getting comfortable again, and I expect the power will come back.
How did Ozzie miss that meatball?
Great job Minter!!
Sit down, Sinbad…
Pedal to the medal, Barves.
I may be taking too much glee in watching AJ dismiss the corpse of Albert Pujols like that..
I’m shocked that the Dodgers are carrying Braves reject Evan Phillips on their roster.
I remember Albert Pujols. He was a great hitter. This old guy wearing his uniform is overmatched.
@106 – You are. The man was a HoF player before he ever left St. Louis. That said…nice to see the narrative desired thwarted.
And I think D’Arnaud is gassed. He’s caught every game so far this postseason. He’s getting tired again and I don’t blame him.
That’s a huge out of Mookie there.
If they win tonight I would not be opposed to starting Contreras tomorrow, especially since it is supposed to be a bullpen game.
@95, looks like they have 3-4 relievers left. Treinen, Graterol, Jansen, and maybe Gonsolin, who started 13 of 15 games in the regular season but didn’t average many innings, so maybe he was an opener. Only two position players – Austin Barnes and Matt Beaty, if the NLCS roster I found is correct.
Someone in this thread also heard Darling say openly he wanted Pujols to hit a homer. And some here think he isn’t biased? Come on.
How did that plane fly cross-country with Tyler Matzek’s balls of steel on board?
DEATHSTAR!!!!
Do we really have a bullpen now?? It was the missing piece! Damn!
@113 – Would have been a nice narrative for his career. I don’t think that’s indicative of the announcer’s bias. Would have just been a good story if Pujols wasn’t a shell these days.
Matzek is phenomenal
Let’s make this a non-save situation for Sliderman/Full Pack.
I wonder if Mike Maroth is on the playoff coaching staff. The pitchers look really good.
@116 You see all kinds of people on twitter talking about how biased he has been in this series.
I’m starting to think that the Dodgers’ problem in this series is that they are carrying 25 pitchers and Seager.
Rats!!
@120 – I have the good fortune never to look at that web platform. 😉
If Freddie is back on…we may have some good days ahead of us!
Liked a question I saw (paraphrased) on the FanGraphs chat: Who stays around for more innings, Dodger starters or Dodger fans?
My nerves are rattling again ………yikes
Luke always looks constipated.
It feels like this inning is going to be the game.
I won’t pretend to be an expert, but this TBS commentary is shockingly one sided
hate this matchup
The Jackson-Pollock matchup was dripping with tension.
The ground ball to Riley that was barely foul will be the moment where Jackson, always on the edge, finally began falling off the cliff.
Drat…
Leyritz-esque…
Well, damn
OK…. I take it back.
Crap.
Like I said ……I didn’t like that matchup. That sucked.
Come on Snit!! What are you waiting on
@130: Wins the thread.
Why do I have this sense of dread about this entire series now?
I can’t take having the rug pulled out from under me again.
Damn I thought Jackson would get another high one past Bellinger. Here we go again. Game on!
EDIT – None of them negative waves, Braves Journal!
Too bad we can’t have another walkoff win. I’ll take a win in the top of the 9th.
I hadn’t posted while following on gameday, so as not to jinx it, but this happened.
That’s 2 straight bad appearances by Luke.
Easy to say now, but I would’ve gone Matzek a second inning after he looked great. He would’ve gotten rest tomorrow anyway.
Real nice letting the corpse of Bellinger beat us.
Fuckin Jim Leyritz all over again.
That wasn’t a bad pitch at all by Jackson.
That was actually a good pitch by Jackson—fastball chin high. I was afraid he would hang a slider. How was Bellinger expecting that?
We not have a lefty to face Bellinger ..
I really thought Jackson shouldn’t have pitched to Bellinger. I’d have rather seen Chavez or even Smith to get 4 outs.
Edit: you can’t expect Mookie to play dead forever.
This is now a replay in reverse of game 1.
This will turn series …we had them in the noose …
I was thinking they shouldn’t pitch to Betts, but then Seager was coming up.
@146 I probably would have gone to Smith for Bellinger too….but he could have given up a granny…..I dunno.
This game has started to suck…….especially with the homer announcers.
This ain’t good.
I will remind this website that we are up two games to none as of this game. Not tied yet (and the game is not over.) Negative energy sucks so…let’s not give any more.
Any Mgr would have had Smith ready to face Bellinger in that situation .
This is why we really needed to tack on some runs in the last couple of innings. At least we have the right guys up.
We have some more late game magic in us??
@150 Right on. Only down by 1. Game still within reach.
Will Smith instruction manual says to use only in clean inning. WHIP too high.
I don’t have a problem with the managing. Asking your closer to get 5 outs is a tall ask, and Luke wasn’t getting knocked around.
Gonna need a miracle game tomorrow by Smyly or Ynoa the like of Bryse Wilsons last year for me to feel any better.
@155 Luke was shaky, lefty/lefty would have been better, Martin could have closed
It’s frustrating that, should the media narrative hold up as they so want it to, we will lose the series at home.
Not tacking on another couple runs when we had chances in the middle innings is what hurt us.
Already consoling myself thinking that the red sox or astros would have demolished us anyway. Sad, but the braves themselves are responsible for the emotional scars that cause this.
Luke= Wohlers
Horrid pitch calling too. Use your GD best pitch, idiot!
Well, fudge. 4 games to get 2. Keep it positive even if this one sucks.
You guys are so dramatic. A 2-2 split over the next four means the Braves go to the World Series.
Another chance tomorrow.
Welp. That was a baseball game. Almost seems scripted doesn’t it?
@162–thank you. We’re still up 2-1. Anything can happen. We got some breaks in the first two games; they did this time. October baseball is pretty terrific.
I still don’t see how Bellinger hit that ball out. It was a very good pitch—it’s not like he hung a slider or grooved a heater down the middle.
There was the momentum swing all seasoned Braves fans were expecting.
@160 OMG!! We are up 2 games to 1. Today sucked but get over it.
I would have probably taken Luke out of the game because he was super shaky. Even if you don’t use Smith, go with someone else with a different look….maybe Martin. Smyly was the only other lefty on the bench….and I think he is pitching tomorrow with Ynoa. But, who knows, that could have been a mistake too.
They offered up the series today and we politely said no thanks. What can you really say? Just don’t let one loss be bigger than it is. Flush it and come back tomorrow with some fury.
I have already decided to not watch/stream a single mlb game next year unless the braves go all the way this year. I will not be watching that asshats HR over 9000 times in every commercial break during the season.
@165 – Maybe you aren’t implying what it sounds like to me, but if anyone thinks the Braves will lose this series because of the ghosts of the past and we just can’t win the big games, that is a gigantic boatload of crap. (the comments at 160 are not worthy of commenting on they are so ridiculous). Winning or losing the NLCS this year will have absolutely nothing to do with what has happened in the playoffs before. We are playing the team with the 2nd best record in the NL and they disposed of two darn good teams to get here. Their payroll is outrageous. Many people on this blog and elsewhere thought we should be sellers at the trade deadline and you could make a good case for it.
If we lose the next 3 games and this series or if we win the whole thing, or anything in between, I’ll be proud of this team. Snitker doesn’t seem to be the analytics guy but he’s embraced them and is doing a really good job of managing the team, even though I don’t always agree with him (I’m probably not as smart as I think I am). Washington is amazing. There’s an excitement within this team and about this team that has grown in the last few months that is contagious and is what makes baseball fun. We had 2 walkoff wins in the first 2 games while our team leader struck out 7 of 8 times.
We are still up 2 games to 1 and there are at least 26 teams that would trade places with us right now. Sorry for the rant, but this defeatist attitude is crazy and is the fallback for way too many people.
The only way this goes away is if we win the series. We did exactly the same thing to them at home so why should we expect any different? I thought a three-run lead would hold up but not this time.
@169 I will give credit where it is due, I am one who wanted to sell after the Acuña injury. AA, Snitker, the analytics people and the players who stepped up all deserve A LOT of credit. Winning the division and making it this far in the playoffs has been gravy in a season that probably no one expected to have so many things go wrong.
I wish the braves would make me shut up for once by winning it all, but 30 years of choking (winning 95 singlehandedly by Glavine and Justice and avoiding truly becoming the buffalo bills) have created these coping mechanisms in me and many others. Your hope and optimism is as ridiculous as my negativity and defeatism since there has been no basis for the former in most of our lives. Please let me be wrong already, braves!
Anyhow, love y’all , still.
@169 Bravo!!!
I may complain about things and say I would do things differently…..but this “woe is me” attitude in the playoffs every single year is old. I love this team and I will always watch them. btw, I found one of my old diaries and one of the pages said something like, “if the Braves can just win 3 of their next 6 games they won’t finish in last place” I was HAPPY about it. Can you imagine?
I don’t think I’m overly positive or negative. I’m just saying there is no relationship between 2021 Braves players and the 1993 Braves. I was getting a little optimistic and even thinking a sweep when we were up 5 to 2, but lo and behold, reality set in. The Dodgers didn’t win 110+ games by batting a bunch of Rafael Belliards and pitching Dan Kolbs. Right now I would give us a 55 to 60 % chance of winning the series. One win in LA will make those chances go way up. As far as the World Series, as hot as the Red Sox bats are, I’m not overly optimistic, but the Braves will put up a good fight if they make it that far.
@173 “I was getting a little optimistic and even thinking a sweep when we were up 5 to 2” – That’s where we differ, I was just flabbergasted and waiting to see how it was all going to go wrong.
I remember being optimistic after Bryse Wilsons heroics last year. 3-1 just killed me.
As for this game, typical crap luck for Luke Jackson on the first hit, a bad shift from Dansby caused the second hit and not a DP, and for all the mentions of Bellinger going out of the zone to get one, the ball was barely 6 inches above the strike zone, in a place he could get his arms extended (and nearly the same location as the fastball he had missed).
You had a better chance with a low and in slider, or a fastball high, but closer to the batter. Or put it at his eye level, make him really work for it like Gattis against Strasburg. Just unfortunate, but that’s baseball.
Oh, and tell me someone else heard Darling screaming YES!…….YES! in the background of the HR call. Nice unbiased broadcasting, as usual.
And look, Eovaldi might come in to finish the red sox game . Nice out of the box managing there, and it is not even a must win situation for them.
There will be plenty of time for everyone to pull the old, warmed-over Atlanta Sports Curse pablum out if we lose this series. Why in the hell everyone is always so quick to do it when nothing’s been decided is totally beyond me. It’s not like it’s an original take that should get you any kind of Twitter cred whatsoever. But lord…we run ourselves out of a rally in the first inning of Game 1 of the NLDS and people were already declaring that series over. It’s just ridiculous. Have the decency to sit there and stew in your stultifying negativity without bothering the rest of us until the series is actually over. Jesus!
And no, this isn’t directed at any one person in particular, or even folks on this board in particular. Though if you embody it, feel free to take my advice.
@174 The putting in Eovaldi in the 9th thing didn’t work out too well, womp womp.
Guess we have a series in the AL.
The ump is terrible btw, is like they are being bad on purpose to dare mlb into trying robo umps.
Recapped.
https://bravesjournal.mystagingwebsite.com/2021/10/20/braves-5-dodgers-6/