This makes four in a row, the fourth having been the hardest. In the end, though, the Braves made it look easy. Second-place Philadelphia came here for three significant games; it left without holding a lead. In Thursday’s clincher, the Braves led 5-0, won 5-3 and celebrated with gusto on the field at Truist Park.
“This was stressful,” manager Brian Snitker said. “This was stressful.”
The Phillies were outclassed by a team that needed 110 games to clamber above .500. They were outscored 14-6 in the series that saw the Braves claim their fourth consecutive National League East title. The famous Bryce Harper went 0-for-11 with over three games, putting a dent in his case to be voted MVP.
The division titles of the past three seasons, the COVID-shortened 2020 edition included, came with relative ease. This one took some doing. But the Braves who spent four months idling in neutral aren’t the Braves we’ve seen since August. Buoyed by their general manager’s acquisition of a new outfield at the trading deadline, this team did what this club is great at doing. For the 19th time since 1990, the Braves won their division.
Credit: HYOSUB SHIN / AJC
Credit: HYOSUB SHIN / AJC
Winning a division is, as we Atlantans know, only Step 1 in the grand scheme, but in 2021 it was a mighty big step. The Braves could never get anything going – they spent the latter part of July alternating wins and losses, which nearly drove the genteel manager Brian Snitker nuts – until GM Alex Anthopoulos did his dealing and all the new guys made, as we love to say in sports, immediate impacts. When that happened, another division title was only a matter of time.
Said Freddie Freeman: “A whole new outfield – that’s incredible.”
Said Snitker, asked what he’d said to his giddy players: “I told them how proud I was of them.”
The Mets and the Phillies had wasted their chances to distance themselves in the National League East. The Braves could have – and probably should have – been out of it by the Fourth of July, but give them credit. They stuck close enough for the Anthopoulos imports to make a difference. This isn’t a team you want to give a second chance, let alone a third or fourth or fifth.
Even without three estimable contributors – Ronald Acuna, Mike Soroka and Marcell Ozuna – the Braves never doubted they were gifted enough to win. As closer Will Smith said after saving the final game of the galvanic series in San Diego on Sunday: “Everybody knows the Atlanta Braves are a good baseball team.”
That’s an easier claim to make if you have a banner to hoist. Once these Braves took first place, muscle memory kicked in. “Here’s how you win a division,” they seemed to say to all watchers, friend and foe alike. Not counting the suspended mini-game that was completed in San Diego, they reached the finish line having won 10 of 11 games. On Sept. 18, they led by a half-game. With Thursday’s clincher, their lead was 5-1/2 games.
After the Braves’ run of 14 consecutive first-place finishes from 1991 through 2005, we in Atlanta know a lot about how divisions are won. Hitting is always nice, and fielding has its place, too, but the name of the game, now as ever, is pitching. Over their sweep of the Phillies, Braves’ starting pitchers – Charlie Morton, then Max Fried, finally Ian Anderson – yielded three earned runs in 19 innings plus the first two batters of a 20th. Both batters scored. Until then, Anderson was working a one-hitter.
Jorge Soler, one of the newish outfielders, hoisted a majestic homer leading off the bottom of the first. In the fourth, Austin Riley lifted a Kyle Gibson slider over the left-field fence. Dansby Swanson made it 3-0 with a wrong-field double later in the inning. Ozzie Albies tripled to score Freeman in the fifth. Riley’s sheepish broken-bat single drove Albies home.
Home runs by Andrew McCutchen and J.T. Realmuto brought the Phillies within two runs, which meant Smith, the closer who drives every Braves fan nuts, was summoned to work the ninth. He struck out McCutchen. Didi Gregorius popped to shortstop. Was it possible Smith would work a 1-2-3 inning with a division title on the line?
Answer: yes. Ronald Torreyes struck out on three pitches. In the end, there was smooth sailing even for Smith, who threw eight pitches. All, miracle of miracles, were strikes.
And now it’s on to MIlwaukee for the NLDS. The Braves won’t be favored in the playoffs. After what it took to get there, they won’t care one bit.
On the field in front of the Braves’ dugout, a champagne bottle in his hand, a soaked Freeman was asked what’s next. “Eleven more wins,” he said, that being the magic number in postseason. “That’s the expectation. We’ve got a good team.”
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