Game Three of the NLDS is not going very well for the Atlanta Braves at this moment as it is currently 6-1 Phillies in the fourth inning. Bryce Elder got the start in Game Three and was cruising through the first two innings, but this began to unravel for him in the third. After giving up a homer to Nick Castellanos to start the inning, the presumed quick hook did not come.
Elder did manage to get a pair of outs after giving up a single, Trea Turner hit a single with two out and it was clear that things were going south. However, no one was warming in the bullpen, Elder vs. Bryce Harper ended with a three-run homer, and only after that did the Braves get someone up with urgency in the bullpen. Two more Phillies reached base before Michael Tonkin came in to face JT Realmuto who hit a two-run double and just like that, the Braves were in deep trouble.
If that sounds familiar to the more observant Braves fans out there, it is because almost the exact same thing happened last year in the NLDS and manager Brian Snitker screwed it up then, too.
Both games the Braves have thought their starter would go just a few innings. I get that they likely want Smith-Shawver to enter at the start of an inning. But somebody should have started warming after the Castellanos homer, not five batters later, after the Harper homer https://t.co/bHTxF8xxRh
— Mark Bowman (@mlbbowman) October 11, 2023
Snitker repeats the same mistakes from last year's NLDS
To be clear, there was nothing wrong with sending Elder back out for the third as he was excellent through the game's first two innings. However, as soon as Castellanos took him deep, the Braves should have had someone getting ready as Elder's struggles late in the season were well-documented and they needed to have a quick hook with him especially with a well-rested bullpen.
Instead, they didn't and he was indefensibly left in to face Harper again and two more hitters after that. Spencer Strider's start in the NLDS went the same way. He was good through two innings, then things went south and Snitker failed to adjust quickly enough with his decisions. The end result was the Braves getting put in a terrible position and they ended up losing the series.
We will never know what would have happened if the quick hook had come in either case. However, one thing is clear that Snit should have gone to the bullpen sooner in both cases and both decisions proved to be pretty devastating for the Braves with their seasons on the line.