Baby Braves bow out but future looks bright Astros will get prime time slots
Brian Snitker endured a restless night after the final game of the season.
He was poring over what went wrong for the Atlanta Braves in the playoffs.
He might’ve been thinking about his own future, as well.
“I laid awake all night staring at the ceiling,” the Braves manager said. “I couldn’t sleep.”
After assembling some of baseball’s finest young talent and making a surprising return to the playoffs for the first time since 2013, Atlanta went down quietly in the postseason. The Baby Braves were shut out twice in Los Angeles before the high-powered Dodgers finished off the best-of-five series with a 6-2 victory in Game 4 on Monday.
The brief playoff appearance exposed a team that still has some glaring weaknesses . The pitching lacks a dominant starter, the lineup needs more power, and the bench wasn’t much help at all.
When Snitker looked over at the Dodgers, a starfilled team that earned its third straight trip to the NL Championship Series, he saw what the Braves must strive to become.
“We’re going to get there,” Snitker said, “but we’re not there yet.”
Indians used to postseason disappointment
For the third year in a row, the unmistakable aroma of champagne wafted into the hallway outside the visitor’s clubhouse following the final game at Progressive Field.
On the Cleveland side, the smell was sour.
The Indians were built for one goal: to win their first World Series since 1948. Yet after cruising to a third straight AL Central title, they couldn’t get past the first round.
October rejects again. “We had a good year,” said pitcher Trevor Bauer, whose shift from the starting rotation to the bullpen for the postseason maybe best summed up Cleveland’s unsatisfying, disjointed season. “We definitely could have gone further. We had a lot of talent here and it didn’t go our way.”
Nothing went Cleveland’s way. But beyond being swept by the impressive Houston Astros, who were superior at every level, the Indians barely put up a fight. Postseason push-overs. The Indians were so close in 2016, when they took the Chicago Cubs into extra innings in Game 7 of the World Series. Now they’ve lost six straight playoff games since opening a 2-0 lead in last year’s ALDS against the Yankees.
Rays extend manager’s contract
The Tampa Bay Rays, who won more games than any American League team that didn’t make the playoffs, have rewarded manager Kevin Cash with a contract extension that runs through 2024, plus a club option for 2025.
The 40-year-old Cash had one year remaining on a five-year, $5 million deal he signed when he replaced Joe Maddon after the 2014 season.
Financial terms were not disclosed.
Padres fire hitting coach
The San Diego Padres have fired hitting coach Matt Stairs after one year on the job as the team continued to rank at the bottom of the majors in key offensive stats.
The rebuilding Padres finished last in the NL West at 66-96, five losses worse than 2017. Stairs’ replacement will be the Padres’ 10th hitting coach since Petco Park opened in 2004.
Alex Bregman is getting his wish — the Houston Astros are headed for prime time.
Major League Baseball released the schedule for Games 1 and 2 of the NL and AL Championship Series on Tuesday, and the Astros will play either the Boston Red Sox or New York Yankees on Saturday and Sunday nights.
The Astros played all three of their AL Division Series games against the Cleveland Indians in the afternoon, with Red Sox and Yankees playing exclusively in prime time.
Bregman sounded off about the scheduling decision to ESPN after the defending World Series champions completed a three-game sweep of the Indians on Monday.
“Does Floyd Mayweather fight the first fight of the night, or is he the main event?” Bregman said. “I mean, does Tiger Woods tee off at 8 a.m.? It’s about time the show ‘Stros play on primetime television, so we’re looking forward to the ALCS.”