Phillies’ first-round bye in MLB playoffs is important despite Braves’ crybaby act
The Phillies are welcoming the time off afforded by their first-round bye this year.
The Philadelphia Phillies checked off another box with a clinch of a first-round bye in the MLB playoffs — a feat the team hadn’t yet reached despite playing October baseball in two straight seasons. A few things had to happen to fall into place. Luckily, the Phillies clinched at home before their regular season series finale in Washington.
The first-round bye is given to the top two teams in each league and gives a free pass into, and home-field advantage in, the Division Series. The Phillies secured the No. 2 seed but fell short of the No. 1 seed to the Los Angeles Dodgers.
The bye will be unfamiliar territory for the Phillies as the two previous postseason visits were kicked off with a three-game Wild Card Series.
Phillies’ first-round bye in MLB playoffs is important despite Braves’ crybaby act
Much has been discussed about the bye, with additional scrutiny coming from the Atlanta Braves. Ken Rosenthal, on the Phillies-Mets broadcast on Sept. 19, spoke about what Braves manager Brian Snitker said about his team losing after the bye in two straight years — to the Phillies.
The bye will be unfamiliar territory for the Phillies as the two previous postseason visits were kicked off with a three-game Wild Card Series.
When the Philadelphia Phillies dispatched the NL East division winner Atlanta Braves from
the NLDS last season in four games, the Phillies did it in commanding fashion by dominating in almost every facet of the game. In particular, it was certainly quite the accomplishment to hold the league’s top offense to just eight total runs in those four games, including shutting down Braves’ superstar Ronald Acuna Jr. by limiting him to just two hits in the entire series.
Apparently, Braves manager Brian Snitker believes that what hurt his team the most leading to their early playoff exit wasn’t the result of the Phillies’ great play, but instead was a consequence of the bad playoff scheduling format. In a recent interview on the Foul Territory podcast, he was peeved about having five days off prior to their first playoff game after winning the division, saying that the long layoff ultimately snuffed their offense.
“It’s hard to hit velocity when you haven’t seen anything in five days,” Snitker said. “That’s my biggest thing. We had a team that set all these records and everything offensively, and we didn’t hit much in the postseason.”
“I don’t like the system quite honestly. We’re gonna have to deal with it,” Snitker continued. “We better figure it out because we’re gonna try like hell this year to win the division and have five days off again. … I think as an offensive player, when you’re not seeing, you know the lights aren’t on, the juices aren’t flowing, and you’re not seeing velocity like you’re going to face in the playoffs, you know it’s hard to score.”
