Atlanta Prevails over the Phillies…on to Los Angeles

The Atlanta Braves scored early and were then able to hold down the Philadelphia Phillies to win the last of their three-game Wild Card series 6 to 2. The Braves got off to a fast start due to Michael Harris’ three-run homer to center field. That blast also scored Matt Olson and Ronald Acuna who had both walked. 3-0 Braves.

The Braves added a couple of runs to their lead in the bottom of the fourth. With one out, Austin Riley walked and came home on Ozzie Albies’ two-run homer. 5-0 Atlanta. Philadelphia scored its first run in the top of the sixth. Kyle Schwarber singled to right and advanced to third off of Bryce Harper’s double. Alec Bohm’s infield ground-out scored Schwarber. 5-1 Braves. Atlanta got that run back in the bottom of the seventh when Matt Olson homered to center field. 6-1 Braves.

The Phillies hadn’t quite given up yet as they scored their second run of the game in the top of the eighth. Derek Hill led off with a triple to right field and scored courtesy of a sac fly off the bat of Trea Turner. 6-2 Atlanta. And that’s the way it ended for the Phillies. Atlanta takes the series two games to one and moves on to challenge the Los Angles Dodgers in the Division series starting this Saturday. Game time is 4:00 ET. So, the Division series are now set.

In the American League it’s the Yankees vs the Rays and the White Sox against the Guardians. The National League features the Padres in Milwaukee and the aforementioned Braves vs Dodgers series. These are best-of-five series with a 2-2-1 home team format. Of course, the higher seeded teams host the first two games and the fifth game if necessary. I’d almost given up trying to understand how MLB seeds its playoff teams. At the beginning of the playoffs, the White Sox were seeded sixth.

They defeated the third seeded Astros. The fourth seed NY Yankees beat the fifth seeded Red Sox. The Rays are the first seed and the Guardians are seeded second. So, you’d think the sixth seed Sox would play the top seeded Rays in the next round. But, no, they play the second seeded Guardians and the fourth seeded Yanks play the top seeded Rays. It made no sense. In the National League, the third seeded Braves beat the sixth seeded Phillies and the fourth seeded Padres defeated the fifth seeded Cubs.

So, you would think the Padres would play the top-seeded Brewers and the Braves would play the second-seeded Dodgers. And that’s what’s going to happen. Four plays one and three plays two. Now that made sense and that’s the way it played out. But then I found out Major League Baseball works differently. In the Division Series, which is not based on divisions, the winner of the 4 vs 5 game plays the 1 seed, and the winner of the 3 vs 6 game plays the 2 seed. Always. So now that I know that, it makes sense in the American League.

The Sox were they sixth seed so now they play the Guardians, the three seed. The fourth seeded Yanks play the first seeded Rays. Wow…that took a while, but I feel so much better now that I figured it all out… Dave’s Dime…Former Nationals in the Playoffs The three former Washington Nationals traded before the deadline this year are all members of teams that made the playoffs. Imagine that… Luis Garcia Jr. hit a home run last night for the New York Yankees in their clinching Wild Card win over the Boston Red Sox. Garcia went 3 for 5 in the game. He only appeared as a pinch-hitter in the first game this past Tuesday. But Luis lit it up last night. It’ll be interesting to see how much he plays in the upcoming Division Series against the Tampa Bay Rays. Curtis Mead, who we all remember was traded to the Boston Red Sox and was injured during his first game with his new team, was actually activated for last night’s Wild Card game against the New York Yankees.

He was named as an injury replacement, which made him eligible to play in last night’s contest. But he didn’t make an appearance and now the Red Sox are toast. Foster Griffin the National’s All-Star pitcher was, as we know, traded to the Cleveland Guardians just before the trade deadline.

The Guardians finished first in the AL Central Division and have been taking it easy this week. They open their Division Series against the upstart Chicago White Sox this Saturday. Griffin didn’t perform quite as well with the Guardians as he had with the Nationals, but he’s still slotted as the team’s third starter and will definitely see some action in this series. Griffin ended up with 15 wins and 6 losses for the regular season, with a 3.61 ERA and 158 strike outs. Not bad at all. Some of you long-time Nationals fans may remember Erick Fedde. Fedde was a 2014 first round draft pick for the Nats and is now pitching with the Chicago White Sox. Erik had an 8 win 9-loss season with the Sox. His ERA was a respectable 3.83, and he managed 99 strike outs. Fedde pitched the final two innings in yesterday’s Wild Card clinching win over the Houston Astros. He didn’t allow a hit or a run and struck out three. Good luck to the three former Nationals still performing in the post-season. We’ll be watching…