Atlanta Braves amazing run to the NLDS ended quietly
By Fred Owens
Atlanta Braves bats snooze – Braves lose
Two weeks ago, I said on the Off Leo’s Rocker podcast that the lineup was deep enough to carry one or two bats slumping. The bottom of the lineup, in particular, gave the opposing pitcher nowhere to go to get an out. After the Mets series, the Braves suddenly had a lineup with only two or three bats hitting.
No lineup can cover that many holes, but Ronald Acuna Jr. (5-15 with a double), Travis d’Arnaud (6-16 with three doubles, two homers, and five RBI), and Matt Olson (4-12, two homers and five RBI) gave it their best shot.
Olson and d’Arnaud drove in all six runs in game one and accounted for 10 of the 13 Braves’ runs in the series. An Arcia homer, a Harris single, and a Riley excuse me swinging bunt produced the remaining three runs.
Olson’s ninth-inning homer in that game was the only one of the five homers hit by the Braves in the NLDS to account for more than one RBI.
Gruesome details of a limp lineup
Other than our three musketeers, the lineup batted .094/.144/.118/.262. In a small sample size such as this, individual raw numbers paint a better picture than a traditional stat line.
The Table below shows how batters other than Acuna Jr., d’Arnaud, and Olson performed; it isn’t pretty.
| Name | G | AB | R | H | 2B | 3B | HR | RBI | BB | SO |
| Dansby Swanson | 4 | 16 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 7 |
| Austin Riley | 4 | 15 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 5 |
| Michael Harris | 4 | 14 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 2 |
| William Contreras | 3 | 8 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 4 |
| Orlando Arcia | 4 | 10 | 1 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 2 |
| Marcell Ozuna | 3 | 8 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 4 |
| Eddie Rosario | 4 | 8 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| Vaughn Grissom | 2 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 |
| Robbie Grossman | 2 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 |
| Total | 30 | 85 | 5 | 8 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 3 | 5 | 30 |
Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Original Table Generated 10/16/2022.
Ozuna and Rosario struggled all season, and Grossman was only effective until pitchers remembered, “oh yeah, that Grossman.”
Grissom’s bat disappeared long before the lineup stopped hitting when pitchers stopped throwing him fastballs. He was overmatched in his one start and quickly replaced with Arcia.
Arcia was his typical all-or-nothing self. I’m not sure what kind of dude Brian Snitker thinks he is, but a hitter dude, he isn’t. I understand why he played, but I don’t understand his two-year contract.