...so I can't sleep and I can't even really blame the last game. Either way I'm still awake, and as a nod to my favorite GDT poster of all-time (thedeathlesshorsie) I just have a few thoughts.
As ya'll know, I (and anyone who grew up with the mid to late 90's Braves) kinda got used to--and took for granted--the yearly trips to the postseason followed by the usual disappointment. Fast forward to 2013, and getting out of the first round has truly become my own sorta World Series for the Braves this year. I'm sure in a way that kinda thinking is rather silly, if not a psychological coping mechanism, but here we are. I was in fact questioning myself thinking this way until I ran across this post on the Mets' Scout board (morbid curiosity after the game? Hah!):
I dunno, I read that and afterwards kinda felt a sense of relief for myself. Obviously it's rather ironic (and lol) that a Mets fan would talk about crumbling at the end of the regular season, but I realized something; we (as Braves fans) have at least had the opportunity to crumble, choke, etc. Meaningful games in September? You can nearly always count on that. The Mets (and a whole other schmorgasm of the MLB)? Not so much.Man do I love watching Atlanta just crumble EVERY SINGLE YEAR. If it's not at the end of the regular season in historic fashion, it's during their annual "one and done" playoff appearance.
For as "AWESOME" as so many who don't know any better make them out to be, I'm STILL saying they aren't anything special and by the time the Mets are better than they are, the Braves won't have won anything but a few division titles in a horrible division. As far as playoff series wins go, they'll have few if any more than we do.
So yeah, we're down a game and get to place our fates in the left-hand of one Mike Minor (was kinda hoping Julio would get the call in game 2, but then realized that even at 1-1, Minor would be pitching in a pivotal game anyway). And here's the thing (for me), given our recent playoff history, I don't even know how comfortable I'd feel even with a game 1 victory. So lemme tell you some things I do know (or at least believe, at 2 in the morning).
"Streaks are streaks," Bobby Cox once said (in 2004 or 2005) when we beat the Astros on a game-ending double play off the bat of Jeff Kent; this ended the Astros' streak of home wins, which was well into double digits at the time. The streak we are unfortunately on is a bad one; it's just that we've been losing games in the playoffs, but how we've been losing them that's particularly galling. And this totally calls for a gameplan, amirite?
Smoltzie also once said something that stuck out to me. In gist, he said that he preferred pitching in the playoffs because he was able to use the hitters' aggression against them.
Mikey, I know you're not Smoltzie, but I know ya can give us 6 or 7 out there on the mound with maybe 3 (hopefully) earned runs. If the offense can't support that kinda effort, then ya really will have had nothing to lose in your postseason debut.
One pitch at a time, one at-bat at a time, and one game at a time.
I do think we got this.
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