Braves to open post-season with Foltynewicz
More difficult roster choices remain for manager Snitker as the youthful squad faces the veteran L.A. Dodgers
Among the simplest decisions Atlanta Braves manager Brian Snitker had to make entering the National League division series was his starter for Thursday’s Game 1 in Los Angeles.
Mike Foltynewicz will take his 12-10 record and 2.85 earned-run average to the mound for the Braves’ first playoff game in five years.
“We wanted Folty to be the guy for a couple years now, and for me now he’s establishing himself as our legit first guy,” Snitker said Tuesday as the Braves had a light workout at SunTrust Park before leaving for Los Angeles.
“(The call) wasn’t hard at all. It didn’t matter what he did his last start — which was outstanding. He’s pitching right now with a lot of confidence. To me, he has by far put himself in that position to be that guy.”
Foltynewicz went 3-1 in September, with 28 strikeouts and 10 walks in 32 innings pitched. His last two starts — 2-0, 14 strikeouts, just three walks in 12 1/3 innings — have been even more efficient.
There is a handful of other far more ticklish decisions to make before the Braves and Dodgers have to turn in their 25-man rosters Thursday morning. The composition of Snitker’s lineup — and by extension his bench — hinges on a couple of nagging health questions.
The manager didn’t offer a particularly optimistic prognosis for shortstop Dansby Swanson, who tore a ligament in his left wrist a week ago and has been limited since to therapy and some rather discouraging solitary swings of the bat.
“There’s a chance (he could play). I don’t know how great a one, really,” Snitker said. “We’re going to take it a day at a time and see.”
If Swanson can’t go, all-purpose Charlie Culberson — who hit .500 for the Dodgers in 16 post-season at-bats last year — will play short. Snitker rejected the idea of having Culberson play third and shifting third baseman Johan Camargo to shortstop.
With Culberson in the lineup, that would significantly weaken the Braves’ bench. One possible adjustment would be to carry three catchers to free either Kurt Suzuki or Tyler Flowers to pinch-hit in those games either is not catching. And one hopeful sign was the sight of Lucas Duda, the provider of power off the bench, taking some full swings in the cage during the team’s Tuesday workout. He had tweaked his back in a pregame drill last week.
Regardless, as Snitker said, “We’re not going to be that matchup bench like the Dodgers are. We don’t have the depth that they do on their bench, and we haven’t all year. We’re not that team.”
The Braves are taking a surplus of pitchers and position players to L.A. to keep their options open. Infielder Rio Ruiz will not be among them, as the Braves sent him to Florida for Instructional League work.
This season, the Braves were 2-5 against the Dodgers — the one highlight being Sean Newcomb coming within a strike of no-hitting them in late July. While Newcomb has been beset by control problems and has lost five of his past six starts, that one dynamic start against L.A. — and the fact that he is left-handed — works in his favour. After Foltynewicz and veterans Anibal Sanchez and Kevin Gausman, the potential fourth starting spot could come down to Julio Teheran or Newcomb.
“Left-handers against the Dodgers, that’s the biggest thing we’re kind of mulling over,” said Snitker, who is likely to carry an eight-man bullpen. L.A. hit
.255 and slugged .458 vs. right-handers,
.240 and .409 against lefties. “We got Newk, who obviously has been successful against the Dodgers — that will come into consideration. And we’ll look at September, how these guys have been pitching, what they’ve done recently.”
As the Braves mull the makeup of their playoff team, Snitker is attempting to balance the need to change with the volatile environment of the post-season against the need to create a sense of calm and continuity around his young team.
The likely eight-man lineup of the Dodgers has a combined 165 games and
566 plate appearances worth of post-season experience. That against a young Braves lineup which counters with 31 games and 98 playoff plate appearances.
Dodgers starter Clayton Kershaw
(24 games, 122 innings pitched in the playoffs) has more than twice the post-season experience himself than any four Braves pitchers Snitker may start, combined.
“I don’t want our team to go out and try to reinvent ourselves. We are who we are. We play the game the way we play it — it’s been good enough. It’s been really good,” Snitker said.
“I don’t want those guys to go out there and think they have to do something completely off the wall. What we’ve done has been really good here: the aggressiveness and how they’ve approached it. The only thing I want them to do now is to continue to play how they have, which is aggressive, with a lot of emotion and that will be good enough.”