During the last two seasons, the Braves won the National League East handily, cruising to first-round byes in the postseason in the process. Rationally, that's a very good thing. You skip one potential round where you could be eliminated from the whole big dance and watch the lesser squads duke it out. It just so happened that the scrappy, home run-belting, beer-chugging Phillies ran into them in the NLDS each of the last two years, taking care of business both times.
The Braves won 101 games in 2022 and were the reigning World Series champions. They appeared poised to find their way back to the Fall Classic. Rhys Hoskins, J.T. Realmuto and the boys had other plans, however. The 87-win Phillies who fell ass-backwards into the postseason sent them packing in four games, advancing to the National League Championship Series for the first time in 12 years.
Turn the calendar to 2023 and the same thing happened. This time, the Braves won the NL East with 104 wins. The Wild Card-bound Phillies once more faced them in the NLDS, crushing Spencer Strider once more along the way and going back to the NLCS.
People were angry, including Braves manager Brian Snitker, who lamented the five-day layoff his team had and did not like the playoff system. The Phillies themselves took notice of that, too:
Things were flipped this year...
The Phillies were the regular season juggernaut who won the division and secured a bye.
The Braves were the team who needed to win the final game of the season, the back-end of a doubleheader no less, to secure their postseason berth.
They'd be without injured pitcher Chris Sale for the Wild Card Series. They'd be tired from the doubleheader before sprinting right into a series out West against the San Diego Padres. At least there wasn't a long layoff though, right?
So much for that.
The Padres swept the Braves in the Wild Card Series with wins on Tuesday and Wednesday.
The Braves were hurt, worn out and ran into a truly great baseball team. That happens. A way to avoid that grind would've been simply to win their division, which I heard the last two autumns was actually a bad thing!
Of course, being a top-two seed doesn't secure anything beyond that bye. The Phillies could get bounced in the NLDS. The bye should help them with some of the nagging injures they've been dealing with on their own end. Hey, if they bow out early in the coming days, it's not going to be because of a bye. It's going to be because they didn't get enough from their starters behind Zack Wheeler or because their big-money hitters didn't perform up to their true talent level. Again, that happens. That's baseball! Maybe everyone will remember that now...
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