Braves complete sweep of Marlins; Yankees stay alive.
Wright tosses six shutout innings as Atlanta reaches first NLCS since 2001
During the regular season, Atlanta was the besthitting team in baseball. In the postseason, its ever-improving pitching staff is garnering the attention.
In his first postseason start, Kyle Wright threw six scoreless innings Thursday to close out Miami 7-0 for a three-game sweep, sending the Braves to the National League Championship Series for the first time since 2001.
“It’s an exciting time to be a Brave,” said Wright, whose team has thrown four shutouts in five playoff games. “We just have a really good pitching staff. I just try to follow in those footsteps.
“It just points to how good we’ve been as a staff, but it’s more exciting that we advance.”
Oh, the Braves are still hitting. Their deep and potent lineup outscored the punchless Marlins 18-5 over three games at Minute Maid Park. Catcher Travis d’arnaud continued his torrid hitting Thursday, getting two more hits and two RBIS.
A confident Braves team, the No. 2 seed, will be ready to play in the NLCS in Arlington starting Monday.
“Last year, we felt we had a team to go deeper into the playoffs,” Braves manager Brian Snitker said. “We felt like that this year. We checked off another box. I’m excited about it. What those guys did on the mound is mindblowing.”
The Braves won the first two games of the series 9-5 and 2-0 after blanking the Cincinnati Reds in both games of their wild card series.
“We deserve to be in this situation,” said Braves first baseman Freddie Freeman, a leading candidate for NL Most Valuable Player. “We know we have a good team, and we’re playing good baseball.”
It’s the first time in history the Marlins have lost a postseason series. In their only previous trips to the playoffs, they won the World Series in 1997 and 2003.
A little amped in the early innings, Wright, 25, got out of a bases-loaded situation in the third and settled down, allowing only three hits and two walks with seven strikeouts. Of his 88 pitches, 52 were strikes.
In the early going, Wright didn’t have great feel with his fastball.
“But I was able to make pitches with off speed,” said Wright, the fifth overall selection in the 2017 draft. “The more I went, the better I felt.”
On Tuesday, Braves starter Ian Anderson pitched 52⁄3 innings of scoreless ball.
Wright and Anderson became the first pair of rookie teammates to pitch at least six scoreless innings in their playoff debut in the same postseason.
“To have a couple of young guys step in and start making strides is good and encouraging for our season and our organization going forward,” Snitker said. “I’m thrilled these guys are getting to experience this because it’s going to do wonders for their development and confidence down the road.”
Dansby Swanson joined d’arnaud with two RBIS.
Ronald Acuna Jr. scored twice following walks. Freeman collected two hits and scored a run. Freeman, d’arnaud, Swanson and Marcell Ozuna had two hits each for the Braves, who collected 10.
Triggered by d’arnaud’s two-run double to right in Atlanta’s four-run third inning off Miami starter Sixto Sanchez, Wright was staked to an early lead. The double off a high fastball gave d’arnaud four extrabase hits through his first eight at-bats in the series and six hits overall.
Sanchez pitched three innings, allowing four runs, four hits and three walks. He struck out two.
Miami, which stranded six runners through the first three innings and eight for the game, loaded the bases in the third. Jazz Chisholm grounded out to second to leave the Marlins empty-handed again.