The Atlanta Braves won 94 games, captured another National League East title, and spent much of the season overcoming injuries that would have buried plenty of other teams.
But October doesn’t care about your regular-season record.
And on Wednesday night, the Los Angeles Dodgers made sure Atlanta learned that lesson the hard way.
The Braves’ season came crashing down with a 4-1 loss in Game 4 of the National League Division Series, ending a postseason run that exposed two problems Atlanta simply couldn’t overcome: a battered pitching staff and an offense that went missing when it mattered most.
Sure, the injuries were brutal. But let’s not pretend pitching was the only reason Atlanta is heading home.
The Braves couldn’t hit when they needed to, either.
“You always are [disappointed] when you’re not the last team standing,” Braves manager Walt Weiss said. “There’s only one team that goes home happy at the end of the year. But I’ve talked all year about how proud I am of this group. This doesn’t change anything.”
He’s right to be proud. But there’s also plenty to question about how this season ended.
Braves’ Offensive Collapse Tells the Story Against Dodgers
Let’s start with the numbers, because they’re downright painful.
Over four games against Los Angeles, Atlanta managed a miserable .145 batting average, a .501 OPS, and just eight runs.
And with runners in scoring position? Buckle up.
The Braves went 1-for-23, producing the second-worst batting average with runners in scoring position in a postseason series in MLB history among teams with at least 20 opportunities.
The only worse performance came from the Dodgers themselves, who went 0-for-22 in the 1966 World Series.
That’s some ugly company.
Of course, Los Angeles wasn’t exactly sending ordinary pitchers to the mound. The Dodgers rolled out a rotation featuring two pitchers who had each won the Cy Young Award twice, along with two other All-Star starters.
Meanwhile, Atlanta was piecing together innings with whatever healthy arms remained.
“They obviously have good pitching, but that’s everyone in the playoffs,” Baldwin said. “That’s something that we have to combat, and we should have been better.”
However, it was Ronald Acuña Jr. who was brutally honest and somewhat emotional when asked about fans booing after losing the NLDS.
“I know the talent I have. It’s frustrating to know you have that potential and not do anything with it,” he said. “[The fans] are well within their rights to boo. I didn’t do anything.”
Tyler Mahle’s Strong Outing Ends With a Costly Bullpen Decision
Here’s where Wednesday night’s elimination game gets particularly frustrating for Braves fans.
Tyler Mahle was doing his job.
The right-hander had Atlanta locked in a 1-1 battle when Weiss pulled him with one runner aboard and one out in the seventh inning.
Mahle had thrown only 85 pitches, and his fastball wasn’t showing obvious signs of fading. In fact, his average four-seam velocity in the sixth inning reached 94.9 mph, higher than in any of his first three innings.
The Dodgers’ only run to that point came courtesy of a defensive mistake when Mauricio Dubón failed to catch a routine Max Muncy pop fly.
Then Teoscar Hernández singled, and Weiss made his move.
Enter 21-year-old Didier Fuentes.
Now, Fuentes had been outstanding just days earlier, delivering 3 2/3 scoreless innings against Los Angeles on Sunday. But that outing required 47 pitches, a significant workload for a reliever who had thrown as many as 40 pitches only once during September.
And Wednesday’s version of Fuentes looked nothing like Sunday’s.
He threw just four strikes in 14 pitches, walked two of the three batters he faced, and watched his four-seam fastball velocity drop considerably.
On Sunday, his 25 four-seamers averaged 99.7 mph. Wednesday, his five averaged just 95.9 mph.
That’s a noticeable difference.
“We had all our best relievers lined up ready to go,” Weiss explained. “That’s been the strength of our club all year. You’ve got Fuentes sitting there. He was one of the best relievers in the game. Same with [Robert] Suarez.”
Unfortunately, having those relievers available didn’t guarantee they were at their best.
Robert Suarez inherited a bases-loaded mess and surrendered a go-ahead, two-run single to Andy Pages on a 99.7 mph pitch with a full count.
Just like that, the Dodgers had the lead.
Mahle, for his part, didn’t publicly second-guess the decision.
“There’s not one pitcher that wouldn’t have been mad or whatever [when removed],” Mahle said. “But it was the right move.”
Maybe so. But that doesn’t mean Braves fans won’t spend the offseason wondering what might have happened if Mahle had stayed in the game.
Braves’ Pitching Injuries Finally Become Too Much to Overcome
Now, here’s the part that makes Atlanta’s postseason exit particularly difficult to evaluate.
The Braves weren’t exactly operating with a full deck.
Four starting pitchers went down during Spring Training. Three more were lost in September.
That’s seven starters gone at different points of the year.
Atlanta managed to acquire Mahle before the Trade Deadline, and he proved to be an outstanding addition. But one pitcher couldn’t solve a shortage that had been building for months.
Chris Sale and Mahle were the only traditional starting pitchers the Braves used during the first two rounds of the postseason.
That forced Weiss to lean heavily on bullpen games, including creative appearances from Ray Kerr.
And to Kerr’s credit, he delivered.
But when Kerr departed Sunday’s NLDS game with two outs in the third inning, Weiss still needed his bullpen to record another 19 outs.
Grant Holmes and Dylan Lee struggled, leaving Fuentes and Raisel Iglesias to handle the final 12 outs in high-leverage situations.
That’s an enormous demand on a bullpen, especially against a Dodgers lineup capable of punishing mistakes.
The workload also raises an uncomfortable question.
Did Atlanta ask too much of its relievers because it didn’t have enough healthy starting pitchers?
It’s a fair question, particularly considering what happened to Fuentes three days later.
Braves Face Tough Questions About Trade Deadline Decisions
The pitching shortage wasn’t exactly a secret.
Questions about Atlanta’s need for another starting pitcher had followed the organization since the offseason, and they continued after Mahle became the only starter acquired before the Trade Deadline.
Then there’s the bullpen.
Suarez missed approximately three months after landing on the injured list in late June. Wednesday marked just his fifth appearance since returning during the final week of the regular season.
Lee’s struggles also created additional complications.
In the decisive Game 3 of the NL Wild Card Series, Weiss turned to Sale to record the final four outs, despite the veteran having thrown 95 pitches just two days earlier.
Sale then returned for Game 3 of the NLDS against Los Angeles, allowing three runs and two home runs over five innings while dealing with some command issues.
Was that unusual workload a factor? It’s impossible to say definitively.
But the Braves’ shortage of reliable pitching options certainly didn’t make life easier for their ace.
And while Atlanta managed to work around those limitations for much of the season, the Dodgers eventually made them pay.
Braves’ Biggest Stars Disappear When Atlanta Needs Them Most
Here’s the kicker.
Even with all those pitching issues, Atlanta had chances to stay alive.
The Braves just couldn’t produce enough offense to capitalize on them.
Michael Harris II and Ozzie Albies were the clear exceptions, finishing the postseason with OPS marks of 1.115 and 1.067, respectively.
Beyond those two, none of Atlanta’s regulars finished with an OPS higher than .513.
That’s not going to get it done against an opponent as talented as Los Angeles.
Even Sale’s three-run, five-inning performance in Game 3 was the kind of outing a championship-caliber offense should have a chance to overcome.
Atlanta couldn’t.
And that’s what makes the ending so frustrating.
The Braves won 94 games. They captured their seventh NL East championship since 2018. They survived a mountain of injuries and still put themselves in position to make a postseason run.
But when the games mattered most, they couldn’t find the big hit or consistently get the outs they needed.
“Everybody wanted to do it for each other,” Dubón said. “It didn’t happen and it sucks.”
There’s really no better way to put it.
The Braves proved they could overcome adversity for six months. What they couldn’t do was overcome their own limitations for four games against the Dodgers.
And now they’ll spend another offseason wondering whether a healthier rotation, one more Trade Deadline addition, or just a couple of timely hits might have changed everything.
