The team that greeted the home fans tonight was, sadly, one we’ve seen too many times this year: it was a team that left seven men on base, stranded Michael Harris on second after he hit a leadoff double, and squandered yet another brilliant start by Tyler Mahle. These Braves amassed a grand total of just 14 hits and eight runs in the four games they played, and that really tells the story. None of these games was a blowout, mostly thanks to excellent pitching (and to a certain amount of offensive struggle in the opposite clubhouse). Our offense just laid an egg.

I’ll leave the Where Do We Go From Here? to the offseason. Today, we’re just a team that sleepwalked through another loss.

Tyler Mahle, though. His postseason resume is now two starts long, and it looks like this: 13 1/3 innings, nine hits, two runs, two walks, two earned runs. Bringing him back looks like the key priority of the offseason.

Michael Harris went 2-3 with a walk in the leadoff spot. He went 11-27 in the playoffs with a .407/.448/.667 batting line, while facing Cristopher Sanchez, Jesus Luzardo, Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Tarik Skubal, Tyler Glasnow, and Blake Snell, who may be the worst pitcher to ever win two Cy Young Awards, but he did win them. Money Mike is in baseball’s upper echelon, effective immediately.

What can you say about this team, other than that they wore down? Didier Fuentes was used constantly in the regular season and nearly daily in the postseason, and by the end, he couldn’t find the strike zone. Matt Olson played every day, and he was silent in the postseason. Ronald Acuña was playing through injury, apparently, and submitted the worst postseason performance of his life, a sub-.500 OPS. I’ve said it before but I’ll say it more loudly now: this team’s fetishization of playing every day is counterproductive.

It didn’t really work out, but I’m still glad they were willing to give Sale extra rest for Game 3 if they felt he needed it, because I generally think that is a really good strategy for keeping guys both healthy and effective over the long haul. I think the other 25 men could have used a bit more of that, too. This team was gassed, and they were beaten by a Dodger squad that wasn’t all that much better than they were. But they were a little better, and that was enough.

I’m not despondent. This is not one of the Atlanta juggernauts that got upset in the postseason. This is a team that topped out about where we thought they would. The Brewers and Rays are stronger than the 2026 Braves, from top to bottom, and while that never guaranteed anybody anything – heck, the Pale Hose could win a ring for His Holiness – it takes a bit of the sting out of the defeat.

But just a bit. The winter’s so damn long, and the labor squabbles seem likely to make it longer than usual. Let’s keep the lights on at this bar.

So long, everybody.