Who are the greatest threats to the Dodgers and Rays?
Atlanta and Minnesota.
The Braves can really, really, really hit. In 26 September games, they scored 173 runs -- nearly 6.7 per game. Take out the 29 runs they dropped on the Miami Marlins, and it's still 5.8 runs per game, a huge number. Outfielder Marcell Ozuna led the NL in home runs and RBIs and finished 14 batting average points shy of an outright Triple Crown ... and he wasn't the best hitter on his team. Freddie Freeman is the NL MVP favorite -- with good reason. Here's the list of first basemen in history with a triple-slash of at least .341/.462/.640, which Freeman put up this season: Lou Gehrig (seven times), Jimmie Foxx (twice) and Albert Pujols, Todd Helton, Carlos Delgado and Norm Cash (once apiece). That's some company.
We haven't even talked about Acuña or the phenomenal Travis d'Arnaud or Dansby Swanson or Ozzie Albies or Adam Duvall. Not to mention a severely underrated bullpen. All anyone wants to talk about with the Braves is their paucity of starting pitching. Yeah, it's real, and with league series this October featuring no off days, that might prove to be a problem. Compared to others' issues, though, it isn't necessarily a killer.
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What's the best wild-card series?
Give me Braves-Reds. In baseball's one-year, 16-team experiment, the 2-7 series looks a lot like a 5-12 in the NCAA tournament -- ripe for upset.
Yes, a few hundred words ago, I was singing the Braves' praise. Yes, a few dozen words ago, I was pointing out that over 60 games, the Reds batted .212. Here's the thing: Cincinnati will start the deserved NL Cy Young winner, Trevor Bauer, in Game 1, follow with Luis Castillo (September: 32⅔ IP, 22 H, 9 BB, 37 K's, 2.20 ERA) and, if necessary, close with Sonny Gray.
Even though the Reds can't hit, they walked more than any other team in the National League and finished behind only the Dodgers, Braves and Padres, three swatalicious teams, with 90 home runs. In fact, 59.7% of the Reds' runs came via the long ball -- by far the highest in baseball history, according to ESPN Stats & Info. (The previous best: Toronto in 2019, with 53.2%.)