Atlanta Braves Top Goal for 2024 Has Everything to Do with Phillies
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The Philadelphia Phillies enter the 2024 season with high hopes. After losing in at the NLCS last season and the World Series the year prior, getting through that breaking point will be a priority for the Phillies this season.
Given the talent on the roster and the moves that Dave Dombrowski continues to make, there's no excuse for them to not get the job done.
Doing so won't be any easier with the Atlanta Braves and Los Angeles Dodgers loading up again this offseason. The Braves have another year under their belt, the Dodgers got much better than they were a season ago, and as Philadephia saw last season, anything can happen.
Nobody expected them to lose two of the Arizona Diamondbacks, but that's exactly what happened during the biggest stage of the season.
There has been one positive for the Phillies despite the tough endings and that's the fact that they can beat Atlanta when it matters most.
In fact, MLB.com Insider Anthony Castrovince believes the biggest goal for the Braves this season is to stop losing to the Phillies.
"The format fault-finders need to cool it. Whine is bad for you. As staff ace Spencer Strider said, “If having five days [off] means you can’t make the adjustment, you have nobody to blame but yourself.” This Braves roster is certainly good enough to win a playoff series. But for whatever reason, their division foes have proved a postseason predicament that must be overcome (if not avoided)."
It's interesting how they always seem to match up. For Atlanta, they should hope they're on the other side of the bracket until the NLCS.
After clearly being the best team in baseball last season, the expectation was for the Braves to run away with the National League. They were by far the best team in the regular season but when the postseason came around, that explosive offense was nowhere to be found.
Baseball has a weird way of things happening, so don't be surprised to see them playing again this postseason.
