Despite Winning 5th Straight NL East Title, Braves Fail to Repeat as Champs
For the 22nd straight season, the World Series champions failed to defend their crown, as the Atlanta Braves were defeated by the Philadelphia Phillies 8-3 in game four of the National League Division Series Saturday afternoon at Citizens Bank Park.
Since the New York Yankees won three straight World Series titles between 1998 and 2000, no team has repeated as World Series champions. That trend continued Saturday, as the 2021 World Series champion Braves were eliminated from playoff contention at the hands of their division rival in four games.
Braves manager Brian Snitker gave the ball to his trusty veteran starter Charlie Morton Saturday afternoon.
Morton gave up a walk and single to open the game, but was able to pitch his way out of the first inning.
In the second inning Alec Bohm smoked a hard hit line drive back at Morton, that hit off Morton's pitching arm. Morton remained in the game, but gave up a three-run homer to Brandon Marsh, powering the Phillies to a 3-0 lead.
Midway through warming up to start the third inning, Morton was pulled, as Snitker saw something that made him concerned about leaving his starter in the game.
Snitker would use five different relievers — Collin McHugh, A.J. Minter, Raisel Iglesias, Dylan Lee, and Kenley Jansen — across six innings, and four of them would give up at least one run. Lee was the only one of six Braves pitchers to not allow a run in Saturday's 8-3 loss.
The Braves, who scored the second-most runs in the National League in 2022, continued to struggle offensively Saturday. The Braves hit three home runs, but nobody was on base for any of them, scoring just three total runs on the day. Orlando Arcia was the only Braves player to record a base hit, and not one Brave drew a walk the entire day, as the Phillies sent the Braves packing for the offseason.
Many believed that the 2022 Braves were a stronger and deeper team than the 2021 club that won the World Series. The Braves went 77-34 over their final 101 games and appeared to have more momentum than any other team, having clinched their fifth straight National League East title in the final days of the regular season.
The Braves took nearly a week off, waiting for the inaugural National League Wild Card Series to wrap up, before resuming play. Sometime in their near-weeklong resting period, the Braves cooled off, and they were outscored 24-13 by the Phillies in the NLDS.
Sometime in the next few weeks, a new team will claim the throne from the Braves, and Atlanta will enter an interesting offseason with a number of questions, mostly centered around who will play shortstop for them next season, as Dansby Swanson is set to become an unrestricted free agent.
