SAN DIEGO — It would be easy to lay most of the blame for the Atlanta Braves’ 4-0 loss to the San Diego Padres in their Wild Card Series opener at the feet of AJ Smith-Shawver, who gave up a first-pitch two-run homer to the second batter he faced, Fernando Tatis Jr., on a pedestrian fastball over the middle of the plate.
Or to blame Braves officials for deciding to start a 21-year-old rookie who’d pitched in only one major-league game this season — that was four months ago — and eight MLB games in his career, including one previous postseason appearance, in which he allowed three homers in 2 2/3 relief innings.
But the game wasn’t lost when Smith-Shawver exited with one out in the second inning Tuesday night with the Braves trailing, 3-0. At least, it didn’t have to be. However, couple that with how right-hander Michael King completely dominated Atlanta hitters with 12 strikeouts in seven innings, and, yes, then it was over.
So now the Braves, powered by players who did some of their best work this season when others wrote them off, face a situation where their backs are against the proverbial wall. They’ve got to win Wednesday night in the sold-out cauldron that is Petco Park during the postseason or else the Braves will be done until spring.
“Here we go,” Braves catcher Travis d’Arnaud said of the message he’ll have for teammates. “It’s almost like (Monday), it’s win or go home. We all kind of know what the situation is, and we’ll be ready to play.”
Travis d’Arnaud delivers a message to AJ Smith-Shawver during an eventful second inning. ‘He came ready to go. He was amped up.’ (Sean M. Haffey / Getty Images)
The Braves faced a must-win situation in the second game of Monday’s makeup doubleheader against the New York Mets after blowing a lead and losing Game 1, when the Mets clinched a wild-card berth.
The Braves had to win the second game that day to clinch a wild-card spot, and did, with Grant Holmes thriving in an emergency start after Chris Sale was scratched due to back spasms. The bullpen came through, too, including a couple of relievers, Joe Jiménez and Raisel Iglesias, who gave up big runs in the first game and came back undaunted in the nightcap.
On Wednesday, the Braves will send Max Fried to the mound, and teammates say he’s the ideal guy for the assignment. Adding more drama: It could be his last start for the Braves because Fried is a pending free agent.
Do the Braves feel good about their chances of squaring the series and forcing a Game 3?
“Absolutely,” said Aaron Bummer, who pitched 2 2/3 hitless and scoreless innings Tuesday on a night when he and two lower-leverage relievers, Jesse Chavez and Luke Jackson, allowed only one hit over the 6 2/3 innings after Smith-Shawver left the game. That hit was an eighth-inning homer by Kyle Higashioka off Jackson.
Their effort allowed the Braves to rest high-leverage pitchers who worked a lot in the previous two days, giving Atlanta a full-capacity bullpen Wednesday behind Fried.
“(Fried) has gone out there and done it, he’s pitched in the World Series, he’s done a whole handful of things,” Bummer said. “I’m excited to watch him pitch, and I know he’s going to go out there and … he’s going to compete as well as he can. I don’t want anybody else out there other than Max right now.”
D’Arnaud said of the team’s thoughts about having Fried pitch in the must-win game: “All the confidence in the world. He’s been in big games like this. He steps up in big games like this, and there’s no one else we’d rather have on the mound.”
When the Padres heard that Sale, the NL Triple Crown winner and presumptive Cy Young winner, was scratched from Monday’s doubleheader, they wondered if he’d pitch in the Wild Card Series. When he was left off the series roster, they got their answer. They knew what it meant for the Braves.
“Chris Sale was probably the guy that, I guess, the whole (Braves) team would have wanted to pitch,” Padres shortstop Xander Bogaerts said. “But he wasn’t available, so you got to bring up someone else. Obviously, we know the situation that they were in. It sucked (for them), but it’s baseball, right?”
Meanwhile, the Padres had their best lined up for the series, with Joe Musgrove to face Fried on Wednesday and Dylan Cease starting a potential Game 3 on Thursday. The Braves will presumably start Reynaldo López in Game 3, if they can get there.
King made their path considerably more difficult in his first postseason start. By striking out a dozen without a walk in seven innings, while allowing only five hits including four singles, King had one of the greatest first playoff starts in history.
It was the second-most strikeouts in a single game in Padres postseason history, behind Kevin Brown’s 16, and King was the first in MLB history with 12 strikeouts and no runs or walks in a postseason game.
“He controlled the zone, he controlled the game,” said Braves center fielder Michael Harris II. “I think he had 12 strikeouts. That’s a lot of strikeouts. He definitely did a good job of making his pitch and controlling the game.”
Padres reliever Jason Adam struck out three more Braves in the eighth inning, as the Padres became the first team in postseason history to strike out at least 15 batters in a game without allowing a walk or runs. In fact, no other team’s pitchers had more than 11 strikeouts without giving up any walks or runs in a postseason game.
“I think the main thing for us was just not missing the pitch that we go to hit,” Harris said. “(King) was doing a good job of not leaving it over the middle of the plate, so it was hard.”
The Braves looked at strikes and swung at a lot of pitches well outside and inside the strike zone, flailing at sliders, sweepers and sinkers that were a foot or more off the plate.
“He was locating both his (fastballs), both in and out,” d’Arnaud said of King. “He would back-door sinker, then come in off of it, then four-seam in, four-seam away. Even his slider, he was able to throw it for a strike and get us to chase, too.”
And Smith-Shawver?
“He came ready to go, he was amped up,” d’Arnaud said. “He looked good in the bullpen. Unfortunately, they were able to capitalize on a couple of mistakes. Tatis early there, first pitch he was ready to go, got a pitch and he didn’t miss it. So you’ve got to give credit to those guys. To take the ball there as a 21-year-old is impressive. He wasn’t afraid, he just made a couple of mistakes and they made us pay.”
The Braves didn’t expect the usually harder-throwing Smith-Shawver to come out firing 93-94 mph fastballs, which he did to the first two batters. Seven pitches in, he had allowed a single to NL batting champion Luis Arraez and a mammoth, 112.8 mph, 415-foot homer to Tatis on a 93.5 mph fastball over the plate.
“Obviously it didn’t go how you draw it up, but that’s baseball,” Smith-Shawver said. “Tatis likes it in. I kind of left one up.”
He threw just three fastballs above 95.8, and the 95.0 average of his 15 fastballs was 1.2 mph below what Smith-Shawver posted in his May start against the Cubs at Wrigley Field — an encouraging performance, but one that left him with a strained oblique that put him on the injured list.
“He started out at 93,” said Braves manager Brian Snitker, who didn’t expect that from Smith-Shawver in the early going Tuesday. “Then all of a sudden I saw 98s up there. We did a good job of limiting damage. And the bullpen did a great job of holding the game there.
“Like I say, it wasn’t because of who we started that we didn’t win this game. We couldn’t get anything going offensively.”
Smith-Shawver was asked about his low velo on those early pitches including the one Tatis pulverized.
“You just try to get out there, try to throw a few over the plate, get settled in,” he said. “And then whenever you need to, you can step on it. That’s kind of what I’ve done this year. Kind of go back and forth.”
But this isn’t Triple A. This is a best-of-three MLB postseason series. The need to “step on it” was immediate.
And now, the Braves and Fried have no margin for error. It’s win or go home.
Fried said before the game that he’d not had a chance to talk to Smith-Shawver since he was named to start the game because the rookie had only been notified just before noon Thursday by Snitker. But if he got a chance to speak to him, Fried said he would’ve said: “Go out and leave it all out there. Have no regrets.”
That didn’t happen Tuesday. Now, Fried and the Braves, including and perhaps especially their hitters, need to do it Wednesday.
(Top photo of Marcell Ozuna: Sean M. Haffey / Getty Images)
