Well. That wasn’t very pretty, was it?

The Braves, looking too much like the team that has lost in so many previous Octobers, lost their divisional playoff opener to the Los Angeles Dodgers 6-1 Thursday night.

Here’s a link to my column on MyAJC.com.

And here are my three “Short Takes” on the game:

1. YOUNG TEAM SHOWS JITTERS. Not everybody on the Braves would admit it, but manager Fredi Gonzalez seemed to state the obvious when he said his players came out overly excited (others would call that nervousness). The team had four major mental lapses in the first 2½ innings, both in the field and on base. Gonzalez: “Hopefully we’ll come out tomorrow and play a little better baseball, a little calmed down. … We’ve got a lot of guys out there [playing] maybe the first time, second game in the postseason, including myself. I think it took us two or three innings to settle down.” Maybe so. But that’s not what you want to hear in a best-of-five series. And one run, five hits and 15 strikeouts is not going comfort anybody about this revamped lineup in the postseason.

2. EL OSO BLANCO GOES SPLAT-O: Outfielder/catcher Evan Gattis has an almost cult-like following. Justifiably so. He has been one of baseball’s best stories this season, making the roster in spring training after a past that included three years out of the sport, odd jobs, homelessness and substance abuse issues. His 21 homers and clutch hitting prompted manager Fredi Gonzalez to start him in left field, despite being a defensive liability. But Gattis looked lost in Game 1. His lack of speed led him to fall short of stabbing A.J. Ellis’s liner in the second, resulting in an RBI double. He also was doubled off first base by Yasiel Puig in the second inning, taking off on Chris Johnson’s liner to right field and not reacting nearly quick off enough to get back to first. The reason: Gattis thought Puig was deking and wasn’t really going to make the catch.

3. MIKE MINOR NEEDS TO BE LIGHTS OUT: Despite their playoff roster decisions, the Braves did nothing in Game 1 to ease concerns about their offense. Their starting pitcher, Kris Medlen, was not well supported on defense but he fizzled quickly after a three-strikeout first inning. (Medlen later: “I need to make better pitches. It was probably one of the coolest first innings I’ve ever thrown with the crowd and whatever else. I just felt like it was one of those games that even when I made good pitches, they still found places to hit them.”) Bottom line: They need Minor to shut down the Dodgers in Game 2. Until Medlen’s remarkable finish this season – 8-1 with a 1.69 ERA over his final 10 starts – Minor had unquestionably been the Braves’ best and most consistent starter this year. But Friday’s start will mark his first postseason appearance and Thursday’s performance by his teammates did not create encouraging foreshadowing.

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