In a lot of ways, it was a fitting ending to what many have dubbed the season from hell for the Atlanta Braves.
Wednesday night’s elimination game started totally different, yet exactly the same as Game 1. The Braves were actually able to jump out to a 1-0 lead and grab some momentum early, thanks to a leadoff double from Michael Harris II, which was followed by some ABC baseball, something fans have been begging to see from this team over the last five months. Ozzie Albies did a fantastic job advancing Harris to third, and Marcell Ozuna was able to bring him in with a sac-fly to right field.
The momentum continued to sway in the Braves favor in the bottom half of the inning, when Max Fried pulled off a Houdini act to get out of a bases loaded jam with nobody out. The first three batters of the Padres lineup failed to leave the infield, yet somehow they ended up covering the bags. However, Fried dug deep as he has so many times before, striking out Manny Machado and forcing two groundouts to end the inning…