Braves Briefing: Maybe getting a first round bye isn't a good thing?

Okay, so maybe the Houston Astros have figured it out.

But the other teams that finished with top two seeds and received byes through the Wild Card Round - the Atlanta Braves, Los Angeles Dodgers, and Baltimore Orioles - all lost the first game of their Divisional Series matchups yesterday.

This mirrors last year's National League Divisional Series outcomes, where both the Atlanta and Los Angeles were eliminated. (It bears mentioning that the Astros and the New York Yankees, who had the top two American League seeds in 2022, both won their matchups and Houston went on to win the whole dang thing.)

The Braves took some different steps this year, attempting to ramp up the competition level during their six day layoff, but the hitting was still flat in a game one loss to the Phillies.

We're not sure what can be done to fix this - do you re-seed the postseason, giving the top teams easier matchups in the Divisional Round? Do you add two MORE teams in each league, so that the top teams get to feast on a team that barely qualified for the postseason? Because face it, MLB isn't going to eliminate games and give back that broadcast rights money.

(In this scenario of adding two more teams, Atlanta would have faced either Cincinnati or San Diego, while Los Angeles would have faced the Chicago Cubs.)

There's no perfect answers, but it's obvious that six days off isn't the solution to "reward" the top seeds.

Atlanta Braves and Philadelphia Phillies Series Schedule

Here are the times for the remainder of the NLDS between the Atlanta Braves and Philadelphia Phillies.

Game two: Philadelphia @ Atlanta. Monday, October 9th at 6:07 pm ET.

Game three: Atlanta @ Philadelphia. Wednesday, October 11th at 5:07 PM ET

Game four (if needed): Atlanta @ Philadelphia. Thursday, October 12th 6:07 PM ET

Game five (if needed): Philadelphia @ Atlanta. Saturday, October 14th at 6:07 PM ET.

MLB Playoff Picture

The next games in the MLB Divisional Round will take place today, with the American League having their Game Twos:

ALDS Game Two (Texas leads 1-0): Texas @ Baltimore -4:07 PM ET on FS1
ALDS Game Two (Houston leads 1-0): Minnesota @ Houston - 8:03 PM ET on FS1

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