If nothing else, it was great to see the offense break out a bit.
After a miserable offensive month, the Braves ended their season with a 12-run beating of the Philadelphia Phillies. It started quickly for the Braves as Jason Heyward walked and Justin Upton followed with a single. Heyward would take third, but after a bad hop and bobble by Cody Asche, Asche threw out Upton trying to get to second. It didn't matter too much as Freddie Freeman nailed another RBI single, and Evan Gattis put one deep into the seats to give Atlanta an early 3-0 lead.
The Braves added a couple more runs in the third. Andrelton Simmons doubled one home, and Elliot Johnson added a sac fly to center. The sacrifice fly was an interesting one as Cesar Hernandez, who is new to center, couldn't find the ball in the sun and made a nifty move to avoid getting hit by the plummeting baseball. On Simmons' double, he took a horrendous route to the ball Simmons scorched.
The Phillies, however, responded with three in the bottom of the inning. Kevin Frandsen singled in one, and with two people on, Erik Kratz hit one just past Gattis' glove for a three-run bomb. That, however, was basically it for the Phillies on offense.
The Braves offense would add 7 more runs on their way to drubbing the Phillies. Julio Teheran pitched fairly well. The three-run home run made it look worse than it really was as the mistake really hurt his overall line. Other than that, he looked fine, and the bullpen followed up with a solid afternoon.
Other noteworthy moment was Christian Bethancourt's first MLB at-bat. It went about as expected as he swung at three pitches in the dirt, but hey, I bet anyone would be overanxious in their first AB. Congrats to him on just getting there.
Although the Braves won 96 games this season, they will not have home-field advantage throughout the rest of the postseason as the St. Louis Cardinals also won, but the Braves will welcome the Los Angeles Dodgers to the Ted on Thursday. The Braves will get HFA if the Reds or Pirates - whoever wins the Wild Card game - beat the Cardinals in the first round, which is perfectly possible.
Win Expectancy Chart