Braves are the October force we remember

Back in NLCS for first time in 19 years

• This Atlanta Braves lineup keeps coming and coming until, as the Miami Marlins learned, you’re swept by a thousand paper cuts and a few machete swings.

Make it through Ronald Acuña Jr. and you get Freddie Freeman. Make it through Freeman and you get Marcell Ozuna. Make it through Ozuna and you get Travis d’arnaud. Put any of them on base, make yourself attack, and now you’re buried by a double off the wall, a bloop single, a Braves homer that, in a blink, sucks the air straight out of your dugout.

That’s how the Braves are rolling through October. That’s how, on Thursday, they advanced to the National League Championship Series for the first time since 2001. Now they’ll face the Los Angeles Dodgers at Globe Life Field in Arlington, Texas. The Dodgers, not the Braves, are the team to beat in the NL. But Atlanta has a stacked offence, an airtight bullpen and, in their National League Division Series sweep of the Marlins, three young starters who stepped up.

Now that they’ve made their first NLCS in almost two decades, they can rightly eye their first title in 25 years.

“The guys, over the course of this year, they started believing,” said manager Brian Snitker after the Braves advanced. “We put the whole thing together, really. Once we fought that starting pitching bug, to have a couple of these young guys step in and all of a sudden make strides, is really, really good.”

Rotation depth is a lingering question, even after Ian Anderson and Kyle Wright silenced the Marlins. After Calgary’s Mike Soroka tore his right Achilles in early August, stripping the Braves of their ace, they waited for Cole Hamels to peel himself off the injured list. Then Hamels was shut down, too, and threw just 52 pitches in 2020. Atlanta starters finished the regular season with a 5.51 ERA, the worst in the National League. It was a reason — and a compelling one — to doubt how much their offence and bullpen could shoulder.

But Max Fried, Anderson and Wright have eased those concerns. Fried, a 26- year- old lefty, is an NL Cy Young candidate. Anderson, a 22- year- old rookie, has not allowed a run in 11 2/ 3 post- season innings.

And Wright, 25, threw six scoreless in a 7- 0 win over the Marlins on Wednesday. He retired 12 of the last 13 batters he faced. Will their test get tougher against the Dodgers? Yes. Will they need more than three starters in a seven- game series with no off days? Also yes.

“We flipped the script,” Freeman said Thursday. “Everyone was talking about our offence. Now everyone will be talking about our pitching.”

Freeman is the l oud metronome of Atlanta’s order. He hits behind Acuña, one of the league’s best young talents. Freeman hits in front of Ozuna, who led the NL with 18 homers and 56 RBI. Freeman took that spot and made an intriguing MVP case. He only trailed Nationals star Juan Soto in most advanced statistics. And while Soto played in 47 games, hurting his bid, Freeman didn’t miss a start.

Since Freeman debuted in 2010, the Braves have won four division titles and had four more second- place finishes. They had four playoff runs end in the NLDS and another in the NL wildcard game. This year, before they even took the field, Freeman tested positive for the novel coronavirus and had a fever that spiked to 104.5 degrees. Freeman recounted saying a prayer and pleading: “Please don’t take me.”

“I wasn’t ready. It got a little worrisome that night for me,” Freeman told reporters in July. “I took some Nyquil, Tylenol and I was able to go to sleep. I was just scared to go to bed. I was scared if I spiked even higher when I was sleeping what would happen. I woke up at 7 a. m. the next morning and I was 101.5, so I was like, ‘ Whew, I can take the 101.’”

After they beat the Marlins, and Freeman reflected on the season, he didn’t say much about his coronavirus experience, about how different his summer could have been. He was ready to discuss the historical significance of getting past the NLDS. The rest, he figured, will be unpacked later.

“I’m just glad the narrative is changing from series win, to getting past the division series — there’s not really much to talk about now,” Freeman said. “So we’ ll start our own narrative. That’s the great thing about this.”

Their fate changed once Cristian Pache caught the last out Thursday. The next moments, though, fit a lazy July afternoon, not an October win that bucked years of unwanted disappointments.

Pache stuck his finger in the air before quickly tucking it by his side. Dansby Swanson adjusted his hat and half- hugged Ozzie Albies at second. Then the Braves formed a high- five line on the mound, their coaches left the dugout and they looked, finally, like a team with its sights set higher.

They looked over the hump.

we’ll start our own narrative. that’s the great thing.