It was evident within the first half hour of play that the Braves probably wouldn’t open the National League Division Series at home.
They fell behind the Phillies 2-0 in the first inning, while the Dodgers and Rockies built two-run leads of their own in the same time. The Braves needed a win, along with losses by both those competitors Sunday, to obtain home-field advantage.
Ultimately, the Braves lost 3-1 and finished their 2018 season with a 90-72 record, their best since 2013.
“It was a really special year,” manager Brian Snitker said. “I’m proud of all these guys and proud of what we accomplished. I was telling those guys a little bit ago, if we’d finished .500 this year we would’ve been like ‘Wow. We took a huge step forward.’ Now we’re 18 games over .500 after being 18 games under last year. That says a lot for these guys, the organization, the whole shooting match. It was a good, solid, productive year.”
The Rockies and Dodgers will play a tiebreaker Monday afternoon at Dodger Stadium. The winner is crowned NL West champion and hosts the Braves Thursday in a best-of-five series.
Further suspense had to wait a day: The Dodgers defeated the Giants 14-0. The Rockies topped the Nationals 12-0. Both of those teams held tie-breakers over the Braves, but neither will need it with 91 wins each.
Meanwhile in Philadelphia, manager Brian Snitker began lifting regulars down 2-1 in the fifth. Lane Adams took over right field for Nick Markakis and Ryan Flaherty assumed first for Freddie Freeman. The substitutions progressed as the Dodgers and Rockies piled on.
In his first start in 10 days, Kevin Gausman was stale early but kept the game manageable. Cesar Hernandez hit a lead-off homer and Jose Bautista singled to start the game. Carlos Santana’s sacrifice fly plated another run in the first.
“I just grooved that first pitch in there (to Hernandez) thinking that he wasn’t going to be swinging,” Gausman said. “It was right now the middle. When you do that, usually you’re not going to get the ball back.”
He walked Bautista and Roman Quinn to begin the third, but induced consecutive pop outs and retired Odubel Herrera on a liner to third. He finished with five innings, allowing three hits and three runs (two earned) in his final tune up.
“I settled in, did a good job of getting out of some stuff,” he said. “But I definitely wasn’t as sharp as I had been.”
Since the Braves acquired Gausman on July 31, he produced a 2.80 in his nine starts entering Sunday. He’d held opposing hitters to a .224 average. The LSU product is set to start Game 2 or 3 of the NLDS. The latter would provide him two extra days of rest.
The Dodgers led 14-0 in the seventh. The Rockies were up 7-0 in their own seventh. Sean Newcomb appeared out of the bullpen during the Braves’ simultaneous sixth, pitching a scoreless inning.
Newcomb, along with Touki Toussant, could be on the outside looking in on the Braves’ postseason rotation. The team wanted Newcomb (and Toussaint, who pitched Saturday) to get extra work in before the NLDS. Snitker has maintained their rotation will be influenced by the opponent.
“I liked it,” Snitker said of Newcomb’s outing. “I liked how he attacked the zone. This was his first experience with that and it wasn’t bad.”
Left-hander Max Fried pitched a clean seventh as his final bid to join the remade roster. The Braves don’t have to finalize their roster until Thursday morning, and Snitker said they may not make final decisions until after Wednesday workouts.
Dropping consecutive series in New York and Philadelphia may have cost the Braves homefield, but they aren’t concerned about a 2-4 finish. As the players put it, the performance won’t be referenced when the postseason begins.
“Whatever happens this weekend, nobody is going to remember what happened Saturday, Sunday or Friday on Thursday,” first baseman Freddie Freeman said. “Yes, we were trying to win home-field advantage. It just didn’t happen. We’ll wait until 7, 8 o’clock (Monday) to see who we’re playing.”
The Braves will travel to Los Angeles or Denver on Tuesday, beginning workouts that day. They get two workout days before the NLDS begins.
“I don’t have a pick one way or another. I’m just glad we’ll be playing somewhere Thursday,” Snitker said. “They’re both really good teams. They’re strong. It’s not like one is weaker than the other. Those are two deep clubs.”
In other postseason interests, the Cubs and Brewers will also face off Monday for the NL Central title. The two division runner-ups will play in the NL wild card game Tuesday. The winner of that game will face the Central winner, Milwaukee or Chicago, which will be rewarded the No. 1 seed.
