The body blows kept coming. The injured list swallowed Spencer Strider, then Ronald Acuña Jr., Michael Harris II, Ozzie Albies, Max Fried, A.J. Minter, Reynaldo López and Austin Riley, some of them multiple times. The division title slipped out of reach. The wild-card race tightened.
Then came a hurricane, a bonus day of regular-season baseball and a makeup doubleheader to decide the MLB playoff field.
In the end, none of that chaos prevented the Atlanta Braves from punching their postseason ticket for the seventh consecutive season.
The Braves clinched a playoff spot Monday with a 3-0 win over the New York Mets in the second game of their doubleheader in Atlanta. It took until game No. 162, but they will face the Padres in San Diego in the Wild Card Series, which begins Tuesday. The outcome leaves the Arizona Diamondbacks, who watched the proceedings from Chase Field in Phoenix, out of the postseason.
For the Braves, victory came after enduring two more bloody blows. First, they were forced to get up off the canvas after a stunning 8-7 loss in Game 1, in which they blew leads of 3-0 and 7-6 in the final two innings. Then, after holding ace Chris Sale in reserve in case of a do-or-die nightcap, he was scratched due to back spasms.
In his place, righty Grant Holmes, who has pitched mostly out of the bullpen, took the mound on 10 minutes notice. Against a Mets team that had already clinched their postseason berth, Holmes threw four shutout innings and the Braves offense mustered enough to cap a long day with a win.
Now, the Braves have an opportunity to get rid of the bad taste left by back-to-back NLDS exits since winning the 2021 World Series. After six straight division titles, they are in an unfamiliar role as a wild card, unable to catch the Philadelphia Phillies in the NL East, but in a familiar position: still in championship contention as MLB’s postseason begins.
This season has been the most difficult hand dealt to manager Brian Snitker, as the formidable roster built by Braves general manager Alex Anthopoulos shed one star after another this spring and summer. But the Braves will not be an easy out. They have starting pitchers with significant postseason experience, from Sale to Max Fried to Charlie Morton, and a deep bullpen led by closer Raisel Iglesias (1.72 ERA). The lineup is far from full strength, without Acuña and Riley, but remains dangerous.
The loss of Strider, who finished fourth in NL Cy Young voting last year, to elbow surgery after just two starts was mitigated by Sale’s return to dominance. Anthopoulos acquired the 35-year-old lefty Sale from Boston for infielder Vaughn Grissom last winter and extended Sale’s contract despite injuries limiting him to 298 innings over the previous five seasons.
Sale was in prime form this season. He is in line for his first Cy Young award, leading all qualified MLB pitchers in wins (18), ERA (2.38), FIP (2.09) and strikeouts per nine innings (11.4). Yet Sale’s declining velocity in recent starts has raised concerns about how well he’ll pitch in October. It doesn’t help that Snitker has told reporters that he does not expect Sale to be available for the NL Wild Card Series.
Fried pitched flawlessly Friday, handling 26 of 27 outs in a shutout win, and the reliever-turned-starter López returned from the injured list to start Saturday. The Braves would undoubtedly be better with Strider, but they wouldn’t be here at all without the impactful offseason pick-ups of Sale and López (2.00 ERA) and the addition of the rookie Spencer Schwellenbach.
Patching holes in the lineup has been a more challenging task. After winning NL MVP as the game’s first 40-70 player in 2023, Acuña had a modest .716 OPS before tearing his left ACL in May. (He tore the right ACL in July 2021.) With Riley, Albies and Matt Olson all hitting below their career norms in the first half, and with Sean Murphy and Harris hurt for stretches, the offense was carried by Marcell Ozuna. The All-Star DH unexpectedly soared into the MVP conversation at times this summer, entered the doubleheader batting .304 with 39 homers and driving in 102 runs.
The Braves’ playoff odds dipped as low as 38 percent on Sept. 21, according to Fangraphs, as the Mets turned up the heat in the wild-card race. The Braves went 15-11 in September as the pitching staff delivered the second-best ERA (2.62) in the majors and Olson, Harris and Jorge Soler — the 2021 World Series MVP, who returned to Atlanta in a trade this July — rediscovered their swings at precisely the right time.
(Top photo of Marcell Ozuna after knocking in a pair of runs: Todd Kirkland /MLB Photos via Getty Images)
