Brian Snitker recaps Game One win over the Reds
Today’s Game: The Braves and Reds opened their best-of-three National League Wild Card Series today with Game 1 at Truist Park and Atlanta took a 1-0 series lead with a 1-0, 13-inning win...The teams last played in August of 2019 at Truist Park in Atlanta, with the clubs splitting a four-game set…Atlanta and Cincinnati have met in the postseason one time previously, with the Braves sweeping the NLCS in 1995 on their way to a World Series title…The Braves are now 5-0 in postseason play against Cincinnati.
Starters: Reds starter Trevor Bauer pitched 7.2 scoreless innings, while Braves starter Max Fried went 7.0 scoreless of his own…Today’s game was just the eighth postseason game in World Series history (since 1903) in which both starting pitchers threw at least 7.0 scoreless innings, and the first since SF’s Madison Bumgarner and NYM’s Noah Syndergaard did so in the 2016 N.L. Wild Card Game…Bauer and Fried today became the first opposing starters in postseason history to each throw 7.0 scoreless without a walk.
Extra-Innings: The Braves and Reds were scoreless through the game’s first 11 innings, the first game in postseason history to be 0-0 through 11 frames…Today’s game was the longest postseason game in Reds franchise history, and the third-longest such game for the Braves…Game 5 of the 1999 NLCS went 15 innings, while Game 4 of the 2005 NLDS went 18.
Strikeouts: Atlanta (21 strikeouts) and Cincinnati (16) combined to strikeout 37 times, the most in a single game in postseason history…The previous record was 34 combined strikeouts, done by the Dodgers (15) and Red Sox (19) over 18 innings in Game 3 of the 2018 World Series.