The fairest place to point the blame 

There is plenty of blame to go around now that the Atlanta Braves have officially joined the 1964 Philadelphia Phillies as the only National League teams to hold 8 ½-game leads in the month of September and miss the postseason.  The truth is, as shocking as this historic collapse was, no one in this area should be completely surprised. 

Before the current run by the New York Yankees, who will make their 16^th postseason appearance in the last 17 years, the Braves were the standard for Major League Baseball playoff consistency.  Despite Atlanta’s team reaching the playoffs in 15 of the last 21 years, the city has been lambasted for not showing up and supporting the Braves. 

Yes, there were thousands of empty seats during the team’s 14-year run as division champions, however in the last two years, the final game of the Braves’ season has featured announced attendance as 44,532 in 2010, for the Game 4 loss of the National League Division Series to the San Francisco Giants and 45,350 for Wednesday’s season-ending loss to the Phillies. 

So whatever you do, don’t blame the fans for not showing up and supporting the team.  Instead, blame the disappearance of the bats during the September swoon which saw the Braves win just nine of 27 games. 

The sad fact of the matter is only the Seattle Mariners and San Diego Padres, two teams who combined to lose 186 games this year, scored fewer runs during September than the Braves. Atlanta made a horrible habit of coming up small at the plate when it mattered most.  The worst offense is that the offensive deficiencies have occurred at home during elimination games. 

Since the team’s incredible postseason run of success began in 1991, it has been eliminated at home nine times in its 15 postseason appearances.  (Game 6, 1992 World Series; Game 6, 1997 National League Championship Series; Game 6, 1998 NLCS; Game 3, 2000 National League Division Series; Game 5, 2001 NLCS; Game 5, 2002 NLDS; Game 5, 2003 NLDS; Game 5, 2004 NLDS; Game 4, 2010 NLDS) That includes Wednesday, although it was the regular season finale, not a postseason game. 

On those ten occasions when Braves fans have filed into either the old Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium or Turner Field to support the team during elimination games, the Atlanta offense has scored 4 runs or less every time.  The Braves have scored a total of 20 runs in those ten games. 

So for those who feel the pitching staff, particularly the awesome young trio of relievers Eric O’Flaherty, Jonny Venters, and Craig Kimbrel wore down over the course of the season, perhaps you’re right.  For those who feel things would have been different with healthy starters Tommy Hanson and Jair Jurrjens, neither of whom pitched at all in September due to injury, look at the players who were on the field, with bats in their hands.

The old saying tells us one of the hardest things to do in sports is hit a baseball.  Unfortunately, the Braves proved that theory correct once again, at the worst possible time, in what is supposed to be the most comfortable place.