Atlanta Braves unleash the Joctober surprise, win Game 3

Shields up; red alert

The Brewers did have multiple chances to break through, but each time Atlanta rose to the occasion:

• 4th innings: Yelich single, steals 2nd w/2 outs. He was stranded there.
• 5th: Hit batter, double. Urias only gets to third.
  • groundout to drawn in infield at SS. Runners hold.
  • grounder to 3rd. Runner at third out in rundown. No one else advances.
  • Remaining runners are stranded.
• 7th: leadoff double. Runner never advances and is stranded.
• 8th: Walk, flyout, then a single. Runners 1st and 3rd with 1 out.
  • a double play ended the inning.

In short, whether it was pitching or defense (and Swanson was usually right in the thick of the solution when the latter was involved), the Braves stymied the visitors at every turn.  The Brewers were never able to get their own key hit.

It’s an Official Atlanta Braves playoff game when…

It’s unnervingly getting to the point that we are almost expecting a TOOTBLAN incident during every playoff game.

In last year’s NLCS, Austin Riley‘s youthful exuberance got him thrown out at a highly inopportune time… though you could argue that Swanson started the mess.

In Game 1, Jorge Soler was running on contact from third base with one out and became part of an instant coffee double-play brewed up by Miwaukee to keep the Braves off the board early.

Today… pretty much outdid everything else we’ve seen.

With one out in the bottom of the 2nd, Travis d’Arnaud was up with a run-scoring opportunity.  He did his part:  a fly ball to deep-ish left field.  Deep enough that Christian Yelich conceded that Austin Riley was going to score from third base and give the Braves the first run of the game.

Except Adam Duvall.  He was on first.  He shouldn’t have moved.

He moved.

On the catch, Duvall apparently thought that Yelich might throw home.  And then he apparently didn’t notice that the ball was coming toward second base.  And then he apparently thought he’d get there safely regardless.

Wrong on at least two of those “apparentlys”.  The throw arrived in time and Duvall was tagged out a split second before Riley slide home.  That nullified Riley’s run as the inning ended before he scored.

Yes:  another Atlanta player was Thrown Out On The Basepaths Like A Nincompoop.  TOOTBLAN.

Duvall contributed positively by going 2 for 4 on the day, but that could have been an enormous blunder had one swing not covered up that sin.  Happily, it’s one break that Milwaukee could not take advantage of.