By Zachary McMahon-
The Atlanta Braves flew over to the west coast to face off against the San Diego Padres after splitting the crucial doubleheader against the New York Mets on Monday. The Braves have the fifth seed while the Padres have the fourth seed in the National League playoffs.
AJ Smith-Shawver made his second start of the season in a bullpen game for the Braves, and his first career postseason start after being recalled from Triple-A Gwinnett. His only start in the regular season was on May 23 against the Chicago Cubs when he went 4 ⅓ innings allowing just three hits in the no-decision in the 3-0 shutout win. In this start, he had just pitched until the second inning, recording four outs, but he had a rough one allowing four hits including a two-run home run by Fernando Tatis Jr. as Aaron Bummer took over in the second.
Michael King went seven for the Padres getting 12 strikeouts in his first postseason start, which accounted for second most in a Padres postseason game. The most is Kevin Brown having 16 strikeouts in Game 1 in the NLDS against the Houston Astros in 1998. That was the season when they advanced to the World Series, just to get swept by the New York Yankees. He’s just the third pitcher in Padres history to have double-digit strikeouts in a postseason game, as Sterling Hitchcock is the third when he had 11 strikeouts in the Game 4 of the same NLDS series against the Astros.
Kyle Higashioka hit a solo home run to make it 4-0 Padres in the eighth off Luke Jackson, and the Braves could not come home as they lost 4-0 to the Padres. The is the second shutout in the postseason for the Padres as the first was in Game 2 of the 1998 NLCS against the Braves when they won 3-0.
Braves manager Barry Snitker said that he didn’t know that Smith-Shawver was going to start until he called him Tuesday morning. Braves first baseman Matt Olson was asked before the game about Smith-Shawver, and he said, “ He’s had plenty of starts. He knows what he needs to do, stay within himself. Talked about the stuff. It’s not like he needs to go out there and throw harder or try to make the breaking ball nastier or anything. It’s already there.”
Mac Fried will go up against Joe Mustgrove when they meet again, there was against punishment, as first pitch will be at 8:30 pm first pitch.
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