The Atlanta Braves were a heavily favored team as a World Series contender. They won 104 regular season games and their star player Ronald Acuña had one of the best seasons, setting records, and being the only member of the 40-70 club, 40 home runs and 70 stolen bases. Now after how the entire team played against the Phillies, none of that matters anymore. In 2021 the Braves won the World Series in 5 games against the hated Houston Astros the only issue Braves fans had with it was their best player Acuña out with an ACL injury. The year after the Braves lost to the Phillies in the NLDS.

Okay, we’ll cut them some slack.

I mean the Phillies went to the World Series that year and Atlanta won it the year prior so who cares? Now comes 2023. The Phillies got better but the Braves were different this year. The offense dominated bullpens. If you’re not familiar with OPS that basically tells you how good a player’s offense is with batting and on bases, anything under .750 OPS is considered below average and 7 of the 9 starters on the Braves had an OPS higher than .800 with just the rest of two being Orlando Arcia with .741 and Travis d’Arnaud .685. Not only did they have a great offense led by Acuña but one of the best aces in Spencer Strider. Strider’s 2023 campaign broke the Braves’ all time record in strikeouts of John Smoltz with 281 over Smoltz’s 276 and also was the only pitcher with 20 wins this season. So the stage was set for the Braves but how can they lose in 4 to the Phillies? Well to put it simply their offense did not show up, not even their best player. Credit to the Phillies pitchers for shutting down the Braves for a total of 8 runs in 4 games which is probably bad for the Braves’ standards. In the end the Phillies won it when it mattered the most and the 2023 Braves will be nothing but a disappointment.