- 1 day ago
Tyler Mahle pitched his heart out, but the Braves offense completely flatlined when it mattered most against the Dodgers. Braves Insider Grant McAuley joins Chris Thomas to react to the season-ending loss, Ronald Acuña Jr.'s struggles, and Atlanta's star-studded lineup that went quiet at the plate.
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00:00grant we talked about it last night we said we were going to be having one of very two
00:04different conversations and unfortunately we are about to have the one we did not
00:09want to have but before we get into all of the things that didn't go right
00:14i mean just a tip of the cap not only for tonight but what he did for the braves since
00:20coming over
00:20tyler malay tonight was absolutely incredible and just deserves all the accolades that you
00:27could throw his way yeah it really does and when you think about you know what the braves needed
00:32at the trade deadline and you've started to kind of size up all these starting pitchers and there
00:36are all these names flying around and it's under the radar there was tyler malay and all he did was
00:40come over and deliver every fifth day for this team really really good run for him two great
00:45postseason starts and you know the kind of pitcher that they needed in october unfortunately he can't
00:50do anything about the other side of the ball but everything you could have reasonably or even
00:54unreasonably asked from tyler malay quite honestly i think he gave you and another performance
00:58tonight pitching into the seventh holding a dodgers lineup down for you know that that length of time
01:04and the braves pitching staff really i mean they kept the braves in all of these games and that i
01:08think is what's going to be the most frustrating part about this particular series is that you didn't
01:12get run off the field you didn't necessarily get outplayed in really any aspect but the dodgers they
01:18got the hits when they needed them and the braves had many many opportunities and just could not find
01:22those yeah the only ones to reach successfully tonight michael harris and uh ozzy albies are the
01:29only ones to register hits in this game and you just look up and down the lineup and we read
01:34some
01:35of these averages and it's just it makes you squint it's like these we know these guys are so much
01:40better than this grant but collectively they know it yeah and they know it and they said as much in
01:44the locker room after so what did you see tonight what what were the dodgers able to do in this
01:48particular game to keep them off balance honestly it was just the the one big hit in terms of you
01:54know what the dodgers were able to do that the braves weren't and i think it's just kind of you
01:58know symptomatic of what we've been seeing throughout the postseason even dating back to the wild card i
02:02mean the phillies series was a tough one for atlanta but they did find those hits ultimately to win two
02:08out of three in that series often riley had a huge one just to get them over the hump in
02:12that one
02:12and give them a chance to get past their postseason nemesis but everybody knew if you want to get to
02:17the world series the road to that goes through los angeles and that's not going to be an easy
02:20ride they've got a tremendous team that they've assembled and it was going to be a tough one and
02:25every time you turn around they've got another great starting pitcher they have a tremendous
02:29amount of arms in their bullpen that just came in and executed at a high level i mean it's just
02:34pretty much a who's who you know he showed up and delivered in some way shape or form for the
02:39dodgers whether it was a freddie freeman or max muncie guys we know really well kike hernandez
02:43yesterday mookie betts i mean a quiet series from shohei otani but that's the strength of
02:48the dodgers it's not all about one player and yes they have a lot of stars and it's easy to
02:52say
02:52that but you know this is what this team is this is what they were built for and again this
02:56was going
02:57to be why it was so tough to get through to the next round is that the los angeles dodgers
03:02are that
03:02standard and everybody has a tough time measuring up to that so as far as what the braids offense was
03:07dealing with tonight it was a bunch of good pitchers who came in and executed and i do think that
03:11the
03:11braids from a you know game plan and attack standpoint they've got a lot of things to think
03:16about you know and their stars didn't play like stars in this series and that was certainly you
03:20know hurtful but it's not all about one or two guys and i think the dodgers showed that by having
03:24different guys at different times andy pa has is one of them tonight one of the worst postseason
03:29hitters statistically speaking and he's the guy that comes through with a big hit to break through
03:33and put the dodgers on top and to win the series the microcosm of this series i thought could have
03:39been explained between the bottom of the first and the top of the second where you get the exciting
03:44play of harris being able to take home on a bounced pitch by glass now that he read perfectly out
03:50of
03:50the hand and then you do grant the one thing that you absolutely cannot do is give this team in
03:56the
03:56dodgers extra chances and that's exactly what they did with a couple of errors yeah they did and that
04:02the dubon one i mean the day after he's a star for dragging back a home run and ultimately it
04:08was in a
04:08losing effort but still like you see that level of play and then you see a short stop that the
04:13infield was playing in i know it's making a little bit more challenging there's no way mike estremski
04:17was getting to that ball and you know debon wasn't able to squeeze it and that red definitely hurt it
04:22was one of two errors in that inning the throw to second base by sean murphy i think was kind
04:27of
04:27ill-advised and i know you want to try to make a play but it did not seem to me
04:30like there was going to
04:31be a bang bang play even at second base and there wasn't and you know you just set up the
04:36dodgers
04:36with a little bit of extra in terms of the outs and in terms of extra 90 feet and that's
04:41the kind
04:41of stuff that adds up for sure when it comes to the state of the bullpen you know that they
04:46were
04:46relied on a lot uh guys like didier fuentes and guys like dylan lee you know they had their moments
04:52where they struggled but overall you know you you wouldn't be here without those guys i think it's
04:56important to recognize the effort they put in not only in the playoffs but in regular season as well
05:01no doubt and i thought to drake baldwin for a little while after this one and and just like
05:05his sizing up of this staff and where it is here and what it was able to do in the
05:10postseason but
05:11how it was able to i think navigate a very very difficult season with so many injuries to the
05:17starting staff and you know questions about different roles and and guys that needed to step
05:21up and step in and i mean the bullpen wasn't immune to injury either robert suarez was the big
05:25offseason acquisition and misses most of the second half and all that did was open the door for a guy
05:30like didier fuentes to have a chance to you know do the things that he did this year and there's
05:35there's a lot of things to build on and nobody wants to hear that right now and i understand that
05:39but you know there were some guys that you can look at it and think you know you can get
05:44excited about
05:44what they have ahead of them but it's just very difficult to do that when you've just been bounced
05:49out of the playoffs and ultimately and i put this on social media and i'll stand by it i mean
05:53this was a
05:53club that had enough pitching surprisingly maybe against all odds to win a series like this it was
06:00right out there in front of them and they just did not have enough in the offense department despite
06:04having multiple all-stars and guys that have an offensive profile that this certainly you expect
06:10a lot more out of not just ron lacuna jr not just drake baldwin not just matt olsen not just
06:15austin
06:16riley i mean it was up and down the order save michael harris and osby albys this was a series
06:21where
06:21the braves just did not have enough offense and that is a surprisingly disappointing statement to make
06:25when you look at the state of the offense we touched on this a little bit last night obviously
06:30you're not going to go in and make wholesale changes on any given night in the playoffs especially
06:36with what got you there and that is having a team that is power latent and can score a lot
06:41of runs
06:41but do you think that might be something that the team takes a look at just in terms of a
06:47big picture
06:48approach because unfortunately grant as you and i both well know this is not the first postseason where
06:53the power bats weren't able to contribute in the way that they needed to no and understand too how
06:59much more difficult it is to to hit in the postseason i mean if you look at all of the
07:04numbers from every
07:05playoff team thus far this is the worst postseason offensively speaking since 1966 and if you're looking
07:11for the history of that that was before they lowered the mound after the 1968 season so that's how long
07:17it's been now sample sizes and generational differences and evolution of the game those are all
07:22considerations here you know it's just not going to be easy and i talked to carl and mike before the
07:26game about the kind of arms that you were seeing is a who's who of top 20 starters in the
07:31national
07:31league but that's what the postseason is that's why these teams got here so i don't know offensively
07:36that there's a lot of you know changes necessarily to expect um you know wholesale wise but can they go
07:43out and find the right complementary pieces can they get some other guys back on track they're certainly
07:48going to have to count on that because this is not a team after 94 wins and a trip to
07:52the nlbs is
07:53looking to blow anything up or go go down to the studs and i don't think that's necessary but the
07:58approach that we saw here consistently just short-circuited the brave chances a lot of first pitch
08:04outs i said this online too i mean it just felt soul crushing to get a couple of guys on
08:08and see the
08:09next guy immediately ground out the first base and that felt like a just to use your word a microcosm
08:15of
08:15the series just time and time again it was the pitching change you know runners are on base maybe
08:21in scoring position and that was a real trouble for the braves in the series they were one for 23
08:25as far as that's concerned as soon as they would get something going it would just be over just like
08:30that with a snap of the fingers and another ground ball ronald acuna jr uh according to multiple
08:35reports i don't know if you saw it personally but was uh visibly emotional after uh the loss uh was
08:42uh you
08:43know towel over the head and um you know what do you what do you make of of where he
08:47sits right now
08:48in terms of you know his status with the braves obviously he is a cornerstone franchise player but
08:54uh with the injury history starting to pile up a little bit is there a chance maybe we find out
08:59you know to the extent that he's dealing with a knee issue or something like that what do you make
09:04of
09:04just the entire situation surrounding acuna and these playoff struggles yeah we may find out more
09:10about that but i i don't think that the the knee issue is is something that really paints
09:15newer should paint the whole narrative about ronald in this postseason i think that he knows and he
09:19said as much after the game we heard from him and you know he understands that he did not do
09:24anything
09:24to help this team win and that's his that's his words i'm paraphrasing but that was his you know
09:29summary of what happened here he understood why the booze were raining down after that ground out
09:33he understood all of that and and quite frankly that self-assessment in the moment
09:37is refreshing when you kind of wonder all right well is this stuff how does it resonate with the
09:42players themselves when they're going through it and i felt like that was a pretty honest self-assessment
09:46and i think the phrase goes to whom much is given much is required and the expectations for ronald
09:51acuna jr or a shohei otani or whoever it may be of that next level superstar mvp stature are always
09:57going to be higher and i think that he understands that he just didn't deliver in that regard in this
10:03postseason and i think it's maybe a point of inflection for him uh over the course of this
10:09offseason but also you know it kind of feels like you know the baseball itself is at a crossroads
10:13not to get totally off tangent here with what this offseason might look like and what next season may
10:18or may not look like and the braves have two more years of ron lacuna jr under contract he's an
10:23incredibly talented player he's had an incredibly frustrating injury past and it's just i think time
10:30to assess everything if you're the brave to figure out how to get to that next level and
10:33i expect ronald to go out and do the thing he normally does in the winter which is work extremely
10:37hard to be ready for that next season but no one's immune to the injuries that's a part of the
10:41game
10:41but you know i do think that there's more to this series and the postseason struggles for ronald than
10:47simply you know tweaking his knee on a slide in the second game of the series there was there were
10:52moments throughout philly series moments throughout this series where he had a chance to come through and it
10:58just didn't happen talking all things braves and dodgers with our very own grant mccauley here
11:02make sure you check out from the diamond wherever you get your pods and live here on 92.9 the
11:06game
11:06just as somebody who goes to the ballpark and sees as many games as you do and sees the fan
11:11reaction as
11:12much as you do you have a good gauge for it were you just personally surprised that they booed
11:18um maybe a little bit i mean i i would say that i can't think of another time that he
11:23was
11:23booed but i also think that that was a culmination of the frustrations of the first pitch out on top
11:29of the fact that you know this was the guy who had a chance and this is the guy that
11:33you expect to
11:34rise to the occasion that didn't happen and to put it as succinctly as he did he understood it
11:39and you know that was something that he felt was in that moment totally within the right of the fans
11:44to do because that's that's them voicing their displeasure with the offense and nobody was happy
11:49about it from the fans right on down to the dugout i think it's uh appropriate to give walt weiss's
11:55flowers i just thought you know navigating everything he had to do you know learning how to be a manager
12:00again doing it with a different organization this time albeit one that he's very familiar with i
12:05thought yeah just a great great job getting this team to 94 wins this year yeah he had a lot
12:10more to
12:11work with and uh this go around as manager than he did over in colorado but yeah knowing this staff
12:15uh or building the coaching staff and knowing this team knowing this organization you know
12:20everybody has said and i've talked to guys as recently as this week that they knew walt was
12:24their guy and he has been the guy to you know to lead this club and there was nothing in
12:29the cards
12:30for the braves in the preseason in terms of predictions and expectations that they were going
12:34to end up here by season's end i don't think anybody was looking at them as going from you know
12:39mid-70s and wins to mid-90s and wins but that is a thing they were able to do this
12:43year it does speak
12:44to the leadership it speaks to the resilience i think of this team it's definitely a close-knit
12:48unit and i could see when we got down there to the clubhouse you know there's no music playing
12:52everything is quiet and the only sound you could hear was just you know a lot of guys who had
12:56gone
12:56to battle all summer long all the way into the fall just giving each other those you know hugs and
13:01slaps on the back and you know not really you know knowing i guess where to go in the immediate
13:06aftermath other than home because the season's over and it's always a bitter pill and you know you
13:11always want another day another game tomorrow but yeah i think this is a group that you know
13:15benefited from having walt here i think he was the right guy for the job i think he proved that
13:19in year one i think he was very aggressive at times and going after wins with his bullpen which i
13:26think
13:26was a refreshing thing to see in a lot of ways he was not afraid to chase those and ultimately
13:31it was
13:31a season in which the braves took a step back in the right direction even if they did not fulfill
13:36their goal of making it all the way to the world series and winning it grant really great stuff
13:39obviously great job as always covering the team all season long i know we'll be hearing you over
13:45the next couple of days throughout the rest of the week putting a bow on the season with the various
13:49different shows and of course on from the diamond as well appreciate it coming on tonight uh wish we had
13:55uh better circumstances to talk about but still a fun season nonetheless yeah no doubt chris i appreciate
14:01your time throughout the year and obviously uh not the ending anybody was looking for but you know this is
14:06uh kind of the the ecstasy and the agony of the postseason if you want to get here but the
14:10uh the
14:10letdown it hits as hard as uh the highest it feels like when your season ends early but i appreciate
14:15the
14:15time as always look forward to catching you soon