Takeaways from Atlanta's series-ending loss to the Philadelphia Phillies

The Phillies take the NLDS three games to one, ending Atlanta's season

The Atlanta Braves have seen their season come to an end, as they drop the decisive game four of the NL Divisional Series 3-1 to the Philadelphia Phillies.  

Here's what you need from the final game of the season: 

Ranger Suarez continues to confound Atlanta's hitters

Bill Streicher-USA TODAY Sports

The Phillies started lefty Ranger Suarez in this game, and he was almost as effective here as he was in game one's shutout of Atlanta: 5 innings with one run allowed on three hits, with no walks and two strikeouts. He threw 69 pitches, 48 for strikes. 

Atlanta's been very effective against left-handed pitching this season, and especially starters: Entering the postseason, the Braves were batting .290/.354/.516 against lefty starters, but Suarez allowed only the one run combined between his abbreviated game one start and tonight. 

I honestly don't know why - Suarez averaged 93 on his sinker and 94 on his four-seam fastball, while getting only four combined swings and misses on his 31 combined changeups and curveballs. Suarez has a shorter arm action, so it's possible that the Braves hitters just had trouble picking up the ball out of his hand, but to hit this poorly against him in two straight outings (and three, if you count what he did against Atlanta in the regular season) is confounding.  

The Phillies has a very good plan to deal with Spencer Strider

Bill Streicher-USA TODAY Sports

Atlanta's de-facto ace went 5.2 innings with three runs allowed on seven hits and three walks, striking out seven. But he also allowed three solo homers, one to Trea Turner and two to Nick Castellanos. 

The Phillies and hitting coach Kevin Long devised a pretty clear and obvious strategy: sit slider, and foul off fastballs until you got a hittable slider. Strider had 22 fastballs fouled off (out of 68 thrown, with 14 swung at & missed and ten called for strikes), and two of the three homers came off of the slider. 

Strider attempted to up his velo to compensate - he averaged 98.7 mph on the four-seam fastball, more than one mph over his season average of 97.3, but it wasn't enough to disrupt Philly's timing. Strider was able to get a strikeout of Bryce Harper late on the changeup, but he only threw six total in the outing. 

It's obvious that Strider needs to work on that third offering to make it a more legitimate part of his sequencing, as Philly's seemingly put out the book on how to handle his arsenal. 

Austin Riley continues to rake for Atlanta

Bill Streicher-USA TODAY Sports

Atlanta got the first run of the game thanks to an Austin Riley solo home run to left in the 4th inning. The homer was Riley's 2nd of the series, with his go-ahead homer in the 8th inning of Monday's game two ending up as the winning runs for Atlanta in the late comeback. 

Riley finishes the series with a .353 average and a 1.059 OPS, with six hits (including two homers) in sixteen postseason at-bats, scoring two runs and driving in three. 

Riley's one of the only Braves hitters from this record-setting offense that showed up in the postseason - no other Braves hitter reached a .300 average, and only two (Ozzie Albies and Matt Olson) had a batting average over .200 in the series. 

The fewest runs the Braves scored in ANY 4-game span during the entire regular season season was 9.

The Phillies held them to 8 runs in their 4-game NLDS victory.

— Paul Casella (@Paul_CasellaMLB) October 13, 2023

Ronald Acuña Jr, the likely MVP, finished the series with a .143 average. He was plagues by strikeouts and groundouts in the series, finishing 0-4 in tonight's game, although he did log four hard-hit balls in the game (105.4 mph, 100.9 mph, 112.7 mph, 97.5 mph). Most notably in this one, he flew out to deep left-center field with bases loaded in the top of the 7th in what, in retrospect, was the last gasp of the Braves season. 

Nick Castellanos was the MVP for the Phillies in this one

Eric Hartline-USA TODAY Sports

The Phillies right fielder hit two home runs tonight, his 2nd two-homer night of the NLDS, as he hit two in Wednesday's game three, as well. 

As we mentioned earlier, both of Castellanos' homers came off of Spencer Strider, and they were both off of sliders. 

Castellanos finishes the series with a .391 batting average and four homers, logging a  1.440 OPS (second only to shortstop Trea Turner, with a 1.455).   

So, what's next for the Atlanta Braves?

The offseason. This was it. The season's over.

The Braves are going to head back to Atlanta, where they'll do exit interviews and wrap up the season. There's some roster decisions to be made - does Charlie Morton come back, or does he retire? Does Atlanta exercise the $9M club option for Eddie Rosario's age 32 season? 

We'll take a day or so to process this loss, and then Braves Today will jump right back into covering this team from every possible angle, from contracts and transactions to minor leaguers. Thank you for this season, our first in operation. We appreciate every single one of you, more than you know. 

Talk soon. 

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