MLB Bullets is going places

Good morning. You can’t count on Atlanta for anything, can you?

• The Cardinals beat the Braves in game one of the National League Division Series. As Zach Kram notes, we’re only one game in and the Braves postseason hopes are already in deep trouble with Jack Flaherty going for the Cardinals in Game 2 of the NLDS.
• A key moment in the Braves loss was when Braves superstar Ronald Acuña Jr. failed to hustle out of the box on what ended up being a single. Acuña’s teammates were highly-critical of his mistake.
• I suppose this isn’t the best timing on this article, which was published early Thursday morning. Ben Lindbergh looks at how the Braves rebuilding effort was supposed to be build on young pitching, but it’s actually the Braves young position players (including Acuña) that have turned the franchise around.
• Another reason for the Braves loss was an injury to reliever Chris Martin, who is probably out for the rest of the NLDS. Luke Jackson, who relieved Martin after he left with his oblique injury, gave up a home run to the first batter he faced.
• Braves third baseman Chipper Jones made a pretty good play on foul ball in Game 1. Of course, it didn’t count because Jones was in the stands since he’s been retired for seven years.
• Turning to today’s American League matchups, Zack Kram notes that the Twins are not just battling the Yankees, they’re facing a cursed playoff history between these two teams.
• David Adler explains why the Twins have a chance to knock off the favored Yankees. Has a 101-win team ever gotten less respect than the 2019 Twins?
• Twins slugger Nelson Cruz talks hitting with David Laurila.
• Stephanie Apstein notes that there are still many questions over whether Yankees manager Aaron Boone can win in the playoffs, in particular with the way he handles a bullpen in October.
• Marc Carig explains why pitching coach Larry Rothschild is “the rock” that the Yankees’ pitching staff is built upon. (The Athletic sub. req.)
• Matt Ehalt looks at how 36-year-old Brett Gardner became the unlikely hero of the Yankees 2019 season.
• In the other ALDS, Zack Kram says that the Rays’ Wild Card win over the Athletics provided a blueprint on how Tampa Bay could take down the Astros.
• Jon Tayler looks at how the Rays “out-Moneyballed” the A’s to win the AL Wild Card Game. (And this is Tayler’s last piece for Sports Illustrated, since he was one of the employees who got purged late yesterday afternoon by their new management team.)
• Jeff Passan looks at how the Rays continue to win with the smallest payroll in the game.
• If the Rays do knock off the Astros, Fox Sports Florida reporter Tricia Whitaker might not survive it since it’s become a tradition to completely soak her with alcohol in the Rays’ clubhouse celebrations.
• And it more good news for the Rays, the potential ownership group in Montreal attended the Wild Card game in Oakland with Rays owner Stuart Sternberg. And by good news, I mean not good news.
• Astros owner Jim Crane says he would “prefer not” to exceed the payroll luxury tax threshold next season, which would likely rule out the team re-signing pitcher Gerrit Cole if he means it.
• Alden Gonzalez talks with some veteran Dodgers players as they deal with the disappointment of the past two seasons and try to avoid becoming MLB’s version of the 1990s Buffalo Bills.
• Travis Sawchik writes that the Nationals don’t need Bryce Harper because they’ve got Juan Soto.
• The Mets fired manager Mickey Callaway.
• Bob Nightengale writes that as long as the Mets still think of themselves as contenders, they had to fire Callaway.
• Mike Axisa looks at ten candidates for the Mets job.
• Mets manager Brodie Van Wagenen says he has no intention of trading pitchers Noah Syndergaard or Edwin Diaz this winter.
• Joe Girardi says he’d like to manage the Cubs, or any other MLB team, actually.
• Here’s a summary of all the open managerial jobs, their pluses and minuses and who the rumored candidates are.
• Red Sox outfielder Mookie Betts says he wants to stay in Boston but “it’s still a business.”
• Danielle Allentuck and Kevin Draper look at the changing nature of MLB attendance and how attendance isn’t as crucial to revenue as it used to be.
• And finally, it’s been an awful year in Baltimore and the Orioles know it. So the coaches and players wrote handwritten postcards to each season ticket holder thanking them for their support and promising them that better days are to come. (The Athletic sub. req.) The Orioles players wrote from the heart and there were no set scripts for them to follow. It’s a really nice gesture from some terrifically-talented ballplayers. They just aren’t as talented as the players on 28 or 29 other MLB teams.

And tomorrow will be a better day than today, Buster.