The season is finally over and it’s an ending that nobody could’ve realistically expected heading into this season back in late-March. Instead of using this season-ending series against the Pirates as a way to either get right for the Postseason (or even fight their way into the Postseason), this is a situation where the Braves are simply playing out the string on their way to what should be a very intriguing offseason after an incredibly disappointing season.
There will be plenty of questions surrounding
this team during the offseason but they had to get there in order to focus on it. The Braves have been on a good run recently but they ran into the wall (or should we say, the hull of the Pirate ship) against Pittsburgh to end the season. The only question at the end of the season was whether or not they’d follow up winning 10 straight by losing four straight to end the season. It’s been up-and-down (mostly down) for Atlanta this season and now it’s time to see how this sad season ended for the Braves.
Friday, September 26
Pirates 9, Braves 3
Pittsburgh had control of this game for the most part, as they nearly bookended this one with four-run innings — they put up four in the second and then added four more in the ninth in order to make sure that this one went from being fairly competitive to being a runaway win for the Buccos. Joey Wentz and Pierce Johnson gave up eight of the nine runs Pittsburgh scored (with the two of them splitting four runs each) and then Joel Payamps gave up Spencer Horowitz’s first of two dingers of the night.
Despite the rough night for the pitching staff, there were still a couple of Braves-related highlights in this one. Ronald Acuña Jr. picked up three hits on the night and then Michael Harris II joined the 20-20 club for the first time in his career. 20-20 has been incredibly elusive for Harris throughout the course of this season and hoo boy, he certainly took the, um, scenic route to getting there.
Saturday, September 27
Pirates 3, Braves 1
Knowing how Spencer Strider operates, he probably won’t be too pleased at all with the fact he ended up giving up three runs while he was out there. Still, six innings and five strikeouts to go along with it isn’t the worst way to end a season. He’ll have a whole offseason to spend figuring out how to continue adjusting to this new world of his post-elbow surgery. Here’s hoping that he’ll continue to build upon things so that he can hopefully return to something even approaching the type of form that once made him one of the most exciting pitchers in all of baseball.
Atlanta scored a run in the second inning after Drake Baldwin cracked a triple out there to left field and Marcell Ozuna cashed him in with an RBI single. That was it and that was all for the Braves in this one, as the Pirates eventually broke the 1-1 deadlock with an RBI double from Nick Gonzales and then Jack Suwinski plated Gonzales with a single that just about eluded Ha-Seong Kim’s glove. The three runs ended up being more than enough for Pittsburgh as Atlanta’s offense couldn’t figure out Bubba Chandler and the rest of the Pirates bullpen.
With that being said, the story of this game was Matt Olson getting ejected for the firs ttime in his major league career following an extremely dubious call of catcher’s interference. Brian Snitker initially incurred the wrath of umpire Brock Ballou by arguing the call in order to protect Matt Olson but Olson himself ended up getting ran as well after he continued to belabor his point in-between innings. All I’ve got to say that if Matt Olson is that upset, I doubt that Olson is the one in the wrong, here.
Sunday, September 28
Braves 4, Pirates 1
The big story heading into this one was the fact that this would be Charlie Morton’s swan song as a big league pitcher. The fact that he was able to do it in a Braves uniform was awesome and truly special — never mind the fact that he ended up going out with 1.1 scoreless innings under his belt. Morton was greeted by his family once he crossed the first base line towards the dugout for the last time in his career and received a long, long ovation that required a curtain call from Morton. Well done on a fantastic career, Charlie Morton.
It was also cool that Morton left with the lead after Ronald Acuña Jr. hit a two-run bomb in order to make it 2-0 heading into the second inning. It’s always nice to see Acuña hit bombs but in this case, it helped make the scenario in which Morton left the game even sweeter than usual.
Those two runs ended up being plenty of run support for Chris Sale in this one, as the opener “strategy” ended up paying dividends and Sale was able to get pretty deep into the game before making his last exit of the season. I’d say that 5.2 innings pitched with nine strikeouts and just one run allowed on the day is a pretty solid way to end the season, right?
Anyways, this was a 2-1 game in favor of the Braves heading into the bottom of the eighth inning. Nick Allen shot one to the right field wall that crossed up Nick Yorke in right field and resulted in a double for Allen, then Matt Olson looped one into center field in order to give the Braves some breathing room at 3-1. Matt Olson then proceeded to score on a fielder’s choice that went awry after Jared Triolo made a pretty lackadaisical throw from second while attempting to turn a double play. That made it 4-1 and then Raisel Iglesias locked things down in order to make sure that the Braves ended the season on the tiniest of high notes.
As Mark mentioned in his recap of Sunday’s game and as we’ll discuss in tomorrow’s MLB Draft Lottery Look-In, Atlanta salvaging this series did do a bit of damage to their Lottery Odds. Avoiding a sweep may have cost the Braves a nice little chunk of Lottery Odds — basically, the Braves should’ve gone all the way with a sweep if that’s what really mattered here.
With that being said, it’s hard to sit here with a straight face and say that the Braves “should’ve” got swept — mainly because the events on Sunday made it all worth it. Charlie Morton getting a proper send-off was awesome. The Braves ending the season with a win and sending the fans home happy one last time made it worth it. In a lost season such as this one, you have to find happiness and worthiness any way you can and while Sunday’s series-salvaging win absolutely didn’t make up for all of the disappointment and bummers that this season provided, it’s still worth it to end the season on a high. Again, it’s nice to have something to cheer for! It’s okay to be happy!
Anyways, we’ll have a lot more to say about the season as a whole in the next week or so. This figures to be an incredibly intriguing offseason facing the Atlanta Braves — assuming they want to make it back to the top of the mountain instead of resigning themselves to simply being a money-printing machine in the baseball world. For now, it’s time to reflect on both a long season and a series that ended with a lot of fun, emotion and relief now that the season is finally over.
