Adam Duvall Interview

Advancing: The Braves Thursday clinched the Wild Card Series and will advance to the NLDS…The series win snapped a streak of 10 consecutive losses in playoff rounds, dating to the 2001 League Championship Series against Arizona…That streak tied for the longest in MLB history with the Chicago Cubs…The Braves last won a playoff round in 2001, sweeping Houston in the NLDS…Atlanta will play the winner of the Cubs-Marlins series, which Miami currently leads 1-game-to-0.

Clinching Games: Atlanta had lost seven consecutive clinching games since their last postseason series win, a three-game sweep of Houston in the 2001 NLDS…The Braves have been outscored 52-16 in these seven games and led for a total of five innings.

Game 2: The Braves played their 36th Game 2 of a playoff round today, and they are now 26-10 (.722) in these games...They have won 10 of their last 11 such games.

Ian Anderson: Made his seventh career start today, including his first in the postseason…At 22 years, 152 days, Anderson became the third youngest pitcher to ever start a postseason game for the Braves…Steve Avery, who started four games at 21 years old in 1991, and Mike Soroka (22 years, 63 days), who started last season’s Game 3 of the NLDS are the only younger starters to take the ball for Atlanta in a playoff game…Anderson is the only Braves pitcher in history to start a postseason game with six or fewer career appearances.

Anderson II: Anderson pitched 6.0 shutout innings in the start, allowing just two hits and two walks while striking out nine…He became just the fourth player in franchise history to throw at least 6.0 scoreless frames in their playoff debut, joining Steve Avery (1991), Johnny Sain (1948) and Bill James (1914), and is the only Braves rookie to do so…Anderson’s nine strikeouts matched Avery for the most by a Braves pitcher in his playoff debut.

Starters and Shutouts: Anderson’s 6.0 scoreless innings followed Game 1 starter Max Fried’s 7.0 scoreless yesterday…They are the first Braves teammates with back-to-back scoreless starts in the playoffs since Steve Avery and John Smoltz in Game 6 and Game 7 of the 1991 NLCS versus Pittsburgh…The Braves would hang on to shut out the Pirates in both of those games, which stands as the last pair of back-to-back playoff shutouts for the Braves prior to this series…The Braves are the first team to throw consecutive shutouts in the postseason since the Brewers and Dodgers both did so in 2018…That 2018 Dodgers club is the last team to open the postseason with consecutive shutouts, and they did so against Atlanta.

Scoreless Streak: Atlanta pitchers threw 22 consecutive scoreless innings this series, and have pitched 28 straight scoreless frames dating to the fourth inning of Game 5 of last year’s NLDS…This is the longest scoreless streak in Braves postseason history…Atlanta threw 24 straight scoreless frames during the 1991 playoffs, which is the longest single-postseason scoreless streak in franchise history…The Braves current run of 28 straight scoreless innings is the longest by any team in the playoffs since the Oakland A’s threw 30 straight frames in 1974.

Ronald Acuña Jr.: Went 3-for-5 with the game’s first RBI from atop the Braves lineup, and now has three career three-hit games in the postseason…Acuña Jr. is the second player in baseball history with three three-hit postseason games prior to turning 23, joining former Brave Andruw Jones…In 11 career postseason games, Acuña Jr. has batted .333/.412/.644 with 15 hits and seven RBI.