Yesterday, the Atlanta Braves and the San Diego Padres had a clear objective: not to let the Philadelphia Phillies and the Los Angeles Dodgers take a 2-0 lead in their respective series.
After all, in a 3-of-5, it starts badly when you are quickly at 0-2.
Among the Braves, who took advantage of the advantage of the field, it was the big players who got up. All four hits came from the top of the lineup (Travis d’Arnaud, Austin Riley, Matt Olson and Ronald Acuna Jr.) and the top three each had an RBI.
Both starting pitchers did well, but Zack Wheeler gave up three runs while Kyle Wright gave up nothing to his opponents.
Fans in Atlanta enjoyed it and even though the Phillies lost their first playoff game last night, tomorrow night they will play their first playoff game in Philly since 2011.
The atmosphere will be excellent, I believe.
On the other side, in Los Angeles, the Padres had no intention of letting the Dodgers take a big lead in the series.
Los Angeles crowd favorite Manny Machado took matters into his own hands, driving the ball home twice and driving in two runs.
Jake Cronenworth (two RBIs) and Jurickson Profar drove in the other runs for the Padres in a 5-3 victory. Trea Turner, Freddie Freeman and Max Muncy drove in the runs in LA
The two starting pitchers, Yu Darvish and Clayton Kershaw, pitched five innings and gave up three earned runs, but the Padres relief did their job.
Josh Hader even did what he hates to do: a four-out save.
Note also that a goose was seen on the ground near Los Angeles, which obviously caught everyone’s attention.
On Friday, the two teams will be in San Diego for the first playoff game there (at full capacity) since … 2006.
I can not wait to see it.
- David Ortiz was put in his place by Manny Machado.
