Like the title of this blog says we will venture into the 2023 NLDS game 3 and try to find out who was to blame for the butt kicking the Braves took last night! (10-2 Phillies as they took a commanding lead in the series) If looks could kill I feel sorry for Arcia as this picture told the story of game 3 of the 2023 NLDS, but let’s dig deeper on the Braves side of things.
1. Bryce Elder is first on the list because ultimately he threw those beach ball’s hanging sliders to Harper and nick as both had multiple hr nights! Elder could only make through 2 and 2/3 inning as he gave up six in the 3rd inning and the game was over. This after the Braves took a 1-0 lead at the top of the 3rd only to give it all back plus interest! Elder was great in the first half of the season with a little bit over a 3 era, but after the all star break his era was well over 5. The league got a book on elder and he was less effective in the second half of the season. Knowing this as a manager leads me to my next person….
2. We Braves fans have a saying with games like this. Snit is going to snit. If you have watched the Braves this season you know the league has a book on elder now. At any sign of losing control he should have QUICKLY been yanked out the game! This is the playoffs and not game 57 of the season where you allow your pitcher to figure it out in the moment. Especially when you have seen the league catch up to his pitching style throughout the season. Yes players have to perform and I agree to a point with that sentiment if that is your opinion of what went wrong, my thing is as a Manager of a baseball team you need to take the player’s feelings out of the equation and do what’s best for the team to win in the playoffs! You have to be the adult in the dugout. I also saw snit pretty much shut this team down to stay healthy mode once uncle Charlie Morton and Max Fried went on IRL. We had already one the division and we took our foot off the petal at the end of the season.
We started to take players out in the middle of the game to give them rest when we needed to stay hot going into the playoffs! Letting players play until they reached personal milestones was put those players over the team goals and once they reached those goals they was sat down! Ronald with the HR and steal record and sat down. Matt Olson with HR and rbi record and sit down. Resting at least 2-3 positional players per game for the last 3 series is a good way to get your historic hr hitting team cold at the wrong time of the season! Changing the batting order during the end of the season and continuing to tinker with the best line up statistically in MLB history was another way to cool off our bats and to start the playoffs with a totally different lineup was idiotic imo! Does McDonalds put ketchup on a BIG MAC? Of course they don’t because why would they change what works? A Big Mac with Ketchup is just another burger. Changing the lineup was dumb and at least he learned that lesson, but it cost us a playoff win at home! In a five game series and for that we are down 2-1 in this series in a must win game today at 8pm est! It’s not all on snit but I do feel he is main reason we are down 2-1 vs the Phillies. With that said The players do have to perform so let’s go to the next part of my list.
3. Our Historic lineup is failing us in this series. Imo snit giving at least two players to rest every other game over the last three series basically got our players cold at the worst time of the season. It became players going for personal milestones instead of staying hot for the playoffs run! Ronald with his 40/70 quest and matt with his hr and rbi quest today took importance over the team stay hot throughout the season and into the playoffs! With all of the history that was made with this offense throughout the regular season it will be a footnote in the mlb record books if the Braves lose in the NLDS to a division rival. The same division rival you lost to last year in the playoffs and the same team you win the division title on their field and popped champagne in the Phillies clubhouse! If you as a player can’t get it in gear for this match up the playoffs then there needs to be some soul searching!
While speaking of soul searching can someone locate Money Mike?!?!?!? He is hitless in back to back playoff series vs the Phillies. He was one of the players that was given random days off at the end of the season and that cooled him off and now he is looking like the beginning of the season Michael Harris II. I hope he can find hit bat today because it’s win or go home game 4 of the NLDS! Orlando Arcia wants to talk trash, but isn’t backing it up with his bat! If you’re going to talk the talk then please WALK THE WALK! Arcia and Sean Murphy are the ones that was slumping the most in the line up after the All Star break outside of the pitcher Bryce elder! To the point snit had played Murphy two games and then a rest every since travis d’Arnaud has came back from his injury and imo I don’t know if that was the right thing to do since Both players seemed like they could never get into a groove and both players stayed cold for the entire second half of the season! Another questionable snit manager move tbh but it is what it is!
4. or maybe the Phillies are built to beat our team! Maybe it’s that simple tbh. They are division rivals and they build their roster to compete against this division first and foremost. Bryce Harper has been a thorn in the Braves side when he was with the nats and now with the Phillies. Just walk the dude if there’s less than two men on base. This team doesn’t fear the Braves at all and it has shown up in back to back years in the playoffs. I don’t want to take credit away from them because they are playing well at the most important part of the season!
So now we are in a win or go home situation in game 4 with our best pitcher throughout the season in Spencer Strider on the bump. I still have faith the Braves will win this game and this series in 5! There’s an old saying that goes like this
Pressure can bust pipes OR they can make diamonds!
so which one are you Atlanta Braves? Are you a rusty pipe or a Diamond? We all will see tonight at 8pm est for game 4 of the 2023 NLDS! Please leave a comment below on what do you think about this playoff series as if this point for the Atlanta Braves. Also Please come check out our live watch party where we commentate the game with our unique southern style! Check out the event page at this link.
https://www.youtube.com/live/szITNCmhjUw?si=ak61Ml_L_k9sQ4xQ
Thank for reading my post and LET’S GO BRAVES!