The Atlanta Braves provided fans with a full range of emotions during game one of the NL Wild Card Series. There was a plethora of highs and lows on both sides of the ball. Chris Sale pitched the best game of his postseason career with an impressive outing. Sale ended the day after 6.1 innings with three runs allowed, four hits, one walk, and a postseason career-high nine strikeouts. He is the first Braves pitcher to accomplish that number of strikeouts in a playoff game since Max Fried and Charlie Morton in the 2021 NLDS.
Weiss pulled Sale after allowing two runners in favor of Didier Fuentes. Fuentes' first taste of playoff action didn't go how anyone had hoped, as he allowed the Phillies to score two runs and take a 3-2 lead in the top of the 7th.
Phillies manager Don Mattingly made the interesting decision to bring in closer Jhoan Duran in the bottom of the 7th. It shows Mattingly doesn't have a lot of faith in his bullpen, and he was right to. They were the 10th-worst bullpen in baseball with a 4.43 ERA. It looked like the Braves were doomed to lose Game One, as they had some poor at-bats in the seventh. However, the decision to have Philly's closer pitch multiple innings backfired spectacularly.
Phillies' decision to let Jhoan Duran face Austin Riley turned into gold for the Braves
Two runners got on base, and a fastball down the middle to Riley sealed a 5-3 win for the Braves. It was a huge hit that probably did a lot for Riley's confidence going forward. He's needed a clutch hit in a big spot.
Mattingly said after the game that the plan to go to Duran in the 7th was something they determined prior to the game. "We talked about it before the game. If we're at the top, we're going the 7th and 8th."
He was then asked if there was a plan to try and get three innings out of Duran, and Mattingly responded, "He made it look easy the first inning. If the second went really quick, I would have just checked with him. If not, we would have went to somebody else."
Philly's manager did state it wasn't a matchup thing, and with Duran, it's more the situation that determines when he is brought into a game. When asked how devastating it was to lose a game like this, he said, "It's frustrating. But in our minds, we had our best guy out there; you live with this one."
While the strategy made a lot of sense given how poorly Philly's bullpen has pitched, it didn't go the way they hoped. That's baseball. It does put the Phillies in a tight spot where Duran's availability may be limited. However, Mattingly should have considered the history between Riley and Duran. Riley hit a game-winning RBI triple off of Duran in the top of the 8th in Philly on September 6th.
It worked out well for the Braves, and hopefully, they can take the momentum from their comeback win and seal the deal on Wednesday to advance to the NLDS.
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